Well, if the U.S. military says it, it must be true, right?
"U.S. Doubts Kurds’ Claims of New Attack by Turkey" by STEPHEN FARRELL and DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD — American military officials in Iraq said Monday that they had no operational reports that Turkey bombed northern Iraq on Sunday, contrary to Kurdish claims of Turkish airstrikes that day.
The officials said that while Turkey did not seek American consent for its raids on separatist Kurdish rebels, there was an understanding that it would notify the American Embassy in Ankara before attacking. And in this case, that did not happen.
An American military official who was not authorized to speak on the record:
“We do get advance warning. We do not think that there was any operation on Sunday.”
The American comments underscored the challenge of determining exactly what occurs in the remote mountainous region."
Well, if the U.S. military said it and the AmeriKan MSM repeated it, it must be true, right, readers?
Unless it is the very next day, then...
"Turkey Says Its Raids in Iraq Killed 150 Rebels" by SEBNEM ARSU and STEPHEN FARRELL
ISTANBUL — Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq have killed more than 150 rebels and hit more than 200 targets in recent days, the Turkish military said Tuesday, countering Kurdish claims that only a handful of people were killed in the attacks.
The air raids, on Dec. 16 and 22, were the first large-scale assaults on Iraqi territory since the Turkish Parliament approved cross-border operations in mid-October against hide-outs of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, known by its Kurdish initials P.K.K.
According to a statement by the Turkish Army, Turkish fighter planes hit 22 targets in the Metina, Zap, Avashin and Hakurk regions in Iraq on Dec. 16, after intelligence confirmed a rebel presence at the sites.
Eleven locations around the Qandil Mountains, where the P.K.K.’s central command is based, were also heavily damaged, including several training bases, antiaircraft platforms, warehouses and weapons stored in hide-outs, the army said. The area was struck again on Dec. 22, the army said.
The military also issued black-and-white aerial video and still photographs that it said showed targets before and after the bombings.
Turkey’s assertions came as Kurdish and American officials said that Turkish jets crossed into Iraqi airspace again on Tuesday, in what American officials said was the fourth such flight over the border in two weeks.
Turkish officials did not comment on claims that it flew into Iraq on Tuesday, but confirmed that it had carried out an air and ground operation early Tuesday on its side of the border in southeastern Turkey. An army statement said five rebels were killed, including two women, part of a rebel group preparing an attack.
The Turkish government accuses the P.K.K. of launching cross-border attacks on Turkish soil from remote bases in the semiautonomous region of northern Iraq, which is administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The conflict has placed the United States in a delicate situation. American officials have supported Turkey’s right to self-defense against the P.K.K., which both Turkey and the United States consider a terrorist organization. It has also provided intelligence to Turkey, a crucial American ally in the American war effort in Iraq.
But the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq are also important partners for the United States. The Kurdish region is Iraq’s most stable, and both the Kurdish and Iraqi governments have objected to the Turkish attacks, while refusing to take action themselves against the militants.
American officials have urged Turkey not to respond in a way that would destabilize Iraq.
The Kurds have consistently denied suffering heavy P.K.K. casualties, saying the airstrikes caused little damage in deserted mountainous areas. Kurdish news Web sites have quoted a P.K.K. official saying that only five of the group’s fighters had been killed in all of the recent Turkish attacks, and five or six wounded, but provided no evidence to support the claim.
Kurdish politicians accuse the Turks of violating their sovereignty and inflicting civilian casualties. Nawzad Hadi, the governor of Erbil, said that the Dec. 16 attack took place in Jamju, a town that lies north of Barzan a few miles inside the Iraqi border, displacing 381 families and killing four civilians.
The Turkish military rejects such claims as P.K.K. propaganda.
The Turkish Army statement said:
“It is clear that such baseless claims encouraging terror, the common enemy of humanity, can only harm those who fabricate them.”
It insisted that 150 to 175 rebels were killed in unsheltered locations and in hide-outs, and that a large number of wounded were taken to nearby hospitals in Erbil, Raniya, Kaladiza and Choman.
The Kurds also accuse the Turks of exaggerating.
Dr. Sherko Abdullah, the director general of hospitals in Sulaimaniya:
“Until now, no wounded P.K.K. have been brought to us, only civilians from the bombarded villages who went to Erbil because it is much closer than Sulaimaniya for them.”
However the Kurdish authorities have sealed off the mountainous border region in recent weeks, making it impossible to independently verify the claims and counterclaims. The P.K.K is also known to have its own hospitals, warehouses and graveyards in the Qandil Mountains where it can treat, sustain and bury its fighters away from the public eye.
According to Turkey’s semiofficial Anatolian News Agency, Turkish surveillance planes were spotted early Tuesday over Cukurca in the Hakkari Province of Turkey’s far southeast, along the border with Iraq, and above the Kanimasi region in northern Iraq. Shelling was also heard, the agency reported.
Brig. Hussein Tamar, an Iraqi border guard official in Dahuk Province, said that the planes struck an area that had been evacuated earlier this month, and that no one was hurt.
In Baghdad, the American military confirmed that Turkish aircraft entered Iraqi airspace on Tuesday — after it rejected Kurdish claims of a Turkish attack on Sunday — but said it could not confirm whether bombs were dropped.
Rear Adm. Greg Smith, director of communications for the American-led forces in Iraq, said Turkey had notified American officials in advance of the latest raid, as is customary, telling them it was a reconnaissance flight, not a strike mission:
“They tell us where they are going and what their mission is. The first three missions were all identified as strike missions. They said their intentions were to go and drop ordnance and they told us that at the time. On this occasion they told us it was a reconnaissance mission.”
However, he confirmed that while the Americans monitor all such Turkish flights, they would not necessarily know if, having crossed the border, the Turkish pilots changed their mission from reconnaissance to bombing."
