In The Days

• Source: CNN
• News Date: 11/12/07

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — An Iraqi Kurdish official said two Turkish military aircrafts crossed into Iraqi border space on Monday and dropped stun grenades on an uninhabited border area in an apparent attempt to locate targets there.

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring;”
—Luke 21:25

“Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.”
—Ezekiel 38:6

But Jamal Abdullah, spokesman for Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), told CNN that these actions did not amount to airstrikes despite news reports that say Turkish helicopter gunships attacked targets in northern Iraq.

Abdullah, in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, said the action occurred in the Bas-Agha village area of Zakho district in Duhuk province.

Tensions have been high along the Iraqi-Turkish border, with Turkey threatening to launch a full-scale cross-border offensive against separatist guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the PKK.

Those militants have launched actions against Turkish troops from northern Iraq and have been fighting the Turkish government forces in southeastern Turkey, where the violence has been steady.

Turkey’s semi-official Anadolou Agency reported that four Turkish soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded on Tuesday in fighting in Turkey’s Sirnak province in the southeast.

The United States, the Iraqi government and the autonomous KRG have launched diplomatic efforts to keep Turkey from launching an offensive against the PKK.

Turkey has said in recent weeks that time is slipping away and it will make the moves it sees fit to deal with the guerrillas if Iraq and the United States fail to quell their activities.

But the Turkish government, which received approval from the parliament to take military action, is primed to take such action. There are tens of thousands of Turkish troops near the border area.

The Iraqi government has formed a ministerial crisis group to deal with the problem.

The government has activated a tripartite Iraq-American-Turkish committee and met with Turkish officials, closed PKK and PKK front offices and targeted its financial resources, as well as pursuing tougher border security.