Iraqi military source reports 300 lightly-armed Turkish troops enter Iraqi Kurdistan

They are said to have moved into the Gali Rash mountainous area 2-3 km inside Iraq. No reports of clashes. The crossing, which is not confirmed by Ankara, is condemned by the Kurdish regional government in Irbil.
Monday, the Turkish army chief Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said that the US had opened air space and provided intelligence for a Turkish air strike a day earlier on PKK bases in northern Iraq’s regions of Zap, Hakurk, Avasin and the Qandil mountains. Gen. Buyukanit told a TV interviewer: “The US gave intelligence… But what is more important the US opened northern Iraqi airspace to us. By doing that the US approved the operation.”
U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Monday it was helping Turkey gain the “actionable” intelligence needed for a strike against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) insurgents hiding in northern Iraq. He would not say whether Washington gave Ankara precise targets used in weekend raids.
debkafile adds: Washington for the first time opened the door to action by an external power in defiance of the authority of its two allies in Iraq: the Shiite-ruled Baghdad government and the autonomous Kurdish administration in Irbil. The beneficiaries were Turkey and Iran, both of which are fighting Kurdish groups carrying out cross-border strikes from bases and havens in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The PKK later reported Turkish air strikes had killed five people, including a woman. In Baghdad, the Turkish ambassador was summoned and told the strikes must stop. The US embassy said the Turkish attack was not approved by commanders, but admitted they had been informed in advance. Turkish artillery continued to pound the PKK targets after the planes left.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people in terrorist attacks since 1984. It says some 3,000 PKK fighters are based in camps in northern Iraq.

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