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News ID: 87712
Publish Date : 17 February 2021 - 21:49

Turkey Says to Expand Iraq Incursions

ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara will expand Turkey’s cross-border invasions of Iraq against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants after 13 Turks abducted by the group were killed in northern Iraq.
"We will expand our operations into areas where threats are still dense,” Erdogan said on Tuesday at his party convention in the Black Sea province of Trabzon.
Turkey will keep its presence in the areas that it cleared of the PKK out of its borders "as long as it’s necessary,” the president said.
"We will stay in these places which we will secure for as long as it takes so that we are not subjected to such an attack again,” Erdogan said, adding that the Gara region in northern Iraq, where the Turkish military conducted a four-day operation, has now been occupied.
The Turkish army regularly conducts operations and air raids against outlawed PKK terrorists in southeast Turkey as well as northern Syria and Iraq. Both neighboring countries view Ankara’s operations as violation of their sovereignty.  
Turkey on Monday announced the detention of 718 people it accuses of being part of a Kurdish militant group it says executed the 13 Turks. The PKK blamed Turkish airstrikes on their bases for their deaths.
Most of the captives were soldiers and police abducted in southeast Turkey and kept in an Iraqi cave.
Furthermore, Erdogan berated the new U.S. administration for failing to immediately accept its version of the incident and said Washington is supporting terrorism.
The U.S. State Department said Sunday it "deplores the death of Turkish citizens” but was waiting for further confirmation that Ankara’s account of what happened was true.
Erdogan branded Washington’s response "a farce”.
"You said you did not support terrorists, when in fact you are on their side and behind them,” he said in televised remarks.
Turkey this month invaded Iraqi territory in an incursion against PKK bases in northern Iraq.
The PKK said the 13 men had died when Turkish forces bombed the cave where the men were being kept after being abducted in raids that began in 2015-6.