U.S.-backed rebels say members of al-Qaida’s branch in Syria have launched an attack on their command headquarters, killing at least five fighters and wounding more than a dozen.
Turkey, which launched near-simultaneous strikes against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq and Islamic State fighters in Syria last Friday, intensified its assault on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight.
“ Drones, helicopter gunships and commando units have been despatched to the scene”, it said, adding that one “terrorist” had been killed in the clashes.
Until about 10 days ago, the talk around Turkey was whether a coalition government should be formed before early August. The conflict with the PKK has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.
The attack is the latest to be blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is engaged in an escalating cycle of violence with the security forces. The attacks ended a two-year cease-fire between the Turkish government and the PKK, effectively derailing a projected...
“We condemn this bombardment that led to the martyrdom of people from the Kurdistan region and call on Turkey not to bombard civilians again”, Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said in a statement.
“We are used to this”. Washington and Ankara this week announced their intention to provide air cover for Syrian rebels and jointly sweep Islamic State fighters from a strip of land along the border, with U.S. warplanes using bases in Turkey for strikes.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said earlier that a “secure zone” would pave the way for the return of 1.7 million Syria refugees now sheltering in Turkey after fleeing their country’s four-year civil war. Then, Turkey conducted its own airstrikes against the...
BEIRUT (AP) Activists say clashes between members of al-Qaida’s branch in Syria and a rebel faction in the country’s north believed to have been trained by the U.S. government have stopped after the rebels left the area.
Turkey’s air raids against the Kurdish rebels, which came at the same time as Turkey began cracking down on the Islamic State group, are reigniting a 30-year conflict with the insurgents and leave a two-year-old, fragile peace process in pieces. But their advance across...
One of the PKK fighters was also reported killed in the fighting, and Turkish forces are conducting searches in the surrounding area trying to locate the rest.
A United States Navy plane approaches to land at the Incirlik Air Base, in Adana, in the outskirts of the city of Adana, southeastern Turkey, Tuesday, July 28, 2015. The Americans have long coveted the use of the Incirlik air base whose vast size and key strategic location makes...