ISTANBUL, Turkey — Two Turkish airstrikes this month destroyed more than 200 Kurdish rebel targets in the mountains of northern Iraq, killing hundreds of insurgents, the military said Tuesday.
Up to 175 rebels were killed on Dec. 16 alone, the military said in a statement posted on its website. The military said other hideouts were hit in a cross-border airstrike on Saturday, followed by artillery fire.
In Iraq, a Kurdish official said information from the rebels cast doubt on Turkey’s claims.
“These are exaggerated figures,” said Mahmoud Uthman, a Kurdish leader and member of parliament. “Most of the villages (that were attacked) were abandoned.”
Iraqi officials said the Dec. 16 operation — the first confirmed by Turkey since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 — violated Iraqi sovereignty. That operation was followed by an incursion by ground forces, who spotted a group of Kurd ish rebels preparing to cross into Turkey.
“A total of 33 sets of targets (more than 200 individual targets) exclusively used by the terrorists were hit,” the statement said of the Dec. 16 strike.
The U.S. has been providing intelligence to Turkey since a Nov. 5 meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tay yip Erdogan and President Bush, who said the rebel group was an enemy of the U.S., Turkey and Iraq.
