BAGHDAD — Iraq’s parliament on Monday condemned the bombing of suspected Kurdish rebel bases by Turkish jets — an attack that seemed to carry tacit U.S. approval — and denounced the raid as an outrageous violation of Iraqi sovereignty.
As many as 50 Turkish fighter jets were involved in the airstrikes Sunday in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq in the biggest attack against Turkish Kurd rebels in years, Turkish media said. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. The rebels said two civilians and five rebels died.
“We condemn this outrageous attack on Iraq’s sovereignty,” Iraq’s parliament said in a statement.
Turkey said the attack was aimed at rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and that U.S. intelligence had been used in the bombing. The PKK has battled for autonomy for southeastern Turkey for more than 20 years and uses strongholds in northern Iraq for cross-border strikes.
“America gave intelligence,” Kanal D television in Turkey quoted the nation’s military chief, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, as saying. “But more importantly, America last night opened (Iraqi) airspace to us. By opening the airspace, America gave its approval to this operation.”
Washington is trying to balance support for two key allies: the Turkish government and the Iraqi Kurds. Despite their apparent support for a limited raid, the United States remains firmly opposed to any major Turkish military operation into northern Iraq — which could disrupt one of the calmest areas of Iraq and run the risk of destabilizing the entire region.
In Washington, a Pentagon official said the U.S. military had “deconflicted the air space” in Iraq for the strikes — that is, the U.S. made sure Turkey would have clear use of the skies to enable the bombings.
Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said the Iraqi government had thought Turkey would coordinate with Baghdad before striking the rebels inside Iraq. He also indicated that civilian casualties showed that Turkey had not hit the right targets.
The State Department declined to offer any judgment on the airstrikes but said the PKK was a threat that needed to be dealt with in a coordinated way by Turkey, Iraq and the United States.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, some Shiite residents in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora said U.S.-backed security volunteers were trying to drive them out of their neighborhoods. The volunteers, also known as awakening councils, are groups of Iraqi Sunnis that the U.S. military has backed to help fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. But Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, commander in Baghdad, disputed the Shiite claims, saying “we’re seeing very, very little of that.”
