Turkey approves Iraq cross-border raids

12 Oct 2012, 7:32 am   -   Source: AAP
Turkey has extended a bill that allows military to stage operations against Kurdish rebels in Iraq. (AAP)

Turkey has extended a bill that allows military to stage operations against Kurdish rebels in Iraq. (AAP)

Turkey's parliament has extended a bill that allows the military to stage operations against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

Turkey's parliament has extended a bill that allows the military to stage operations against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, brushing aside warnings from Iraq against cross-border raids on its territory.

With a show of hands, legislators on Thursday voted in favour of the measure extending the mandate for another year. It now expires on October 17, 2013.

Turkey has frequently struck targets in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which seeks autonomy for Turkey's Kurdish minority. The group uses bases in northern Iraq for hit-and-run attacks on Turkey.

But relations between Turkey and Iraq have soured recently and Baghdad has said it won't tolerate military operations on its territory.

Ties have been strained by a Turkish decision to shelter Iraq's former Sunni vice-president, Tariq al-Hashemi, who was convicted on charges of running death squads. Turkey also started importing crude oil from northern Iraq under a deal with the Iraqi Kurdish administration, in another move that has angered Iraq.

Ali al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, called the vote in the Turkish parliament "interference in the affairs of neighbouring countries."

"The Turkish parliament should discuss and vote on domestic issues that concern Turkish people instead of meddling in the affairs of a sovereign country like Iraq," al-Moussawi said while speaking on a visit to the Czech Republic.

But Turkey argues that armed forces must intervene because neither the government in Baghdad nor Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region in the north are able to prevent the PKK from attacking Turkish targets.

"If only they could have prevented it," Turkey's Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz said. "It is our responsibility to protect the country from these terrorists."

Turkish jets last hit suspected PKK targets in northern Iraq in two separate cross-border raids on Sunday, Turkish media said.

The Kurdish rebels confirmed the attacks, but said the targets were long-abandoned camps and that there were no casualties.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984.

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