Turkish air strikes kill 3 PKK militants in southeast Turkey - military

ANKARA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Turkish jets killed three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in southeastern Turkey near the border with Iraq in air strikes on Thursday, the military said.</s>ANKARA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Turkish jets killed three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in southeastern Turkey near the border with Iraq in air strikes on Thursday, the military said.

The strikes near the town of Cukurca in a mountainous part of the border province of Hakkari come after a series of attacks launched by the PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey. A ceasefire broke down just over a year ago. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Nick Tattersall)</s>Soldier killed in clash with Kurdish forces in Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's state-run news agency says one Turkish soldier was killed and one wounded after Kurdish militants shot at security forces during a military operation in the southeastern province of Siirt.

Anadolu said Thursday that operations are ongoing to catch the perpetrators, with air support.

Violence between the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and Turkish security forces resumed last year after the collapse of a two-year peace process. Since then, more than 600 Turkish security personnel and thousands of PKK militants have been killed, according to Anadolu. Rights groups say hundreds of civilians have also been killed in the clashes.

Last week, Turkey sent tanks across the Syrian border to fight the Islamic State group and to halt the advance of Syrian Kurdish groups affiliated with the PKK.</s>It’s a strange combination of dysfunction and durability we’re witnessing in Turkey today. Last month it seemed NATO’s second largest army was in free fall. A failed coup, engineered—if we are to believe Turkey’s official narrative—by a shadowy Islamist cult with tentacles stretching around the world and led by a septuagenarian supervillain living in Pennsylvania, who laid bare a military establishment riven with micro-fissures. Last week, that same military launched an offensive into the world’s most dangerous conflict, sending tanks, fighter jets and special forces across Turkey’s southern border into Syria.

The move took many observers by surprise. Was this a show of force, some asked, a messsage to the world that the Turkish military was still intact and capable? What did the timing mean?

Only days earlier, another suicide bombing attributed to the so-called Islamic State had rocked Turkey, targeting a Kurdish wedding in the country’s southeast and claiming 54 lives, 22 of them children. Turkey’s response to the worst terrorist incident in the country this year was unequivocal: “Daesh should be completely cleansed from our borders,” Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister told a news conference after the attack, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. “We are ready to do what it takes for that.”

Still, some experts were skeptical. Islamic State militants have controlled the stretch of the Turkish border from Jarablus and approximately 50km west since June 2013. It was the first segment of the border the militants captured and has been a critical supply route for them ever since.

In May 2013, the group reportedly carried out its first attack on Turkish soil, in the border town of Reyhanli, killing 51. Since then, they have been involved in numerous attacks, including a brutal double suicide bombing that left 103 dead in Ankara, the Turkish capital, in October 2015. Why did another attack warrant such an extreme response, particularly at a time when Turkey’s military was still recovering from the failed coup?

Within days, the answer to that question became clear. Islamic State fighters fled from Jarablus on the first day of the offensive. Turkey then quickly turned its sights on Syrian Kurds, known locally as the YPG, who had pushed west across the Euphrates River, backed by U.S. airstrikes, and driven Islamic State fighters out of Manbij, a city 30 km south of Jarablus.

The Kurds had been eyeing Jarablus and the Islamic State-controlled territory to its west for some time. It is the only region along the Turkish border they do not control and taking it would create a contiguous Kurdish territory stretching from the Iraq border to Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline.

For the Turks, that is tantamount to a national disaster. They remain committed to their view that the YPG represents more of an existential threat to Turkey than the Islamic State. No cajoling or reasoning has managed to change their minds. Indeed, western powers have had a difficult time convincing Turkey of anything in recent years. Last spring, Turkish negotiators scored a major win after they arm-twisted the European Union into accepting a controversial refugee deal that included 6 billion Euros (or $8.7 billion in Canadian currency) and the promise of visa-free travel for Turks in the EU. It has openly accused the U.S. of puppeteering the coup attempt and demanded American officials turn over the man they accuse of orchestrating it, though they have yet to provide any evidence of his involvement.

Despite this, the U.S. last week claimed to have supported the Turkish military push into Syria, a move the Pentagon had vigorously opposed for years.

Somehow, Turkey managed to get its way, again, despite its increasingly combative foreign policy posturing and sometimes ludicrous demands. But it’s not so hard to understand why. Turkey’s geopolitical wins reflect the key role it plays in so many of the world’s most pressing concerns, and its leaders know it. Solving Europe’s refugee crisis will be impossible without Turkish cooperation; finding a durable solution to the Syrian war will require Turkey’s active participation. Containing Russia, combating Islamic extremism, finding a sustainable balance between international human rights norms and Islamic values—all these missions require Turkey.

It’s no wonder Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party are acting like spoiled brats. In today’s world, they can get away with pretty much whatever they want. The push into Syria is only the latest example. A recent report by the Wall Street Journal, citing both Turkish and American officials, claims that the Jarablus offensive was supposed to be a joint venture between the U.S. and Turkey, originally intended to force the YPG into focusing its efforts on Raqqa, the Islamic State capital east of the Euphrates, while Turkey would take on Islamic State to the west, along its border. Thus the two American allies could be kept well apart and out of conflict with each other. But the Turks pulled the trigger early, catching the Americans, and the Kurds, by surprise.

Now, the U.S. finds itself playing referee. During his August visit to Ankara, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned the Kurds that they risk losing U.S. support if they do not stay to the east of the Euphrates River.

The Kurds announced they would comply but on Sunday, Turkish media reported Turkish forces moving south toward Manbij, sparking clashes with YPG fighters. The U.S. issued a second warning, this time to the Turks. U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter argued that the YPG “will and is withdrawing” across the Euphrates and that Turkey should remain focused on fighting the Islamic State.

It’s unlikely it will comply. Turkey’s leaders know what they want, and they know there is little the U.S., or anyone else, can do to stop them. But what they want may not be what is best—for Turkey, for Syria, or for the rest of the world.</s>(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A well placed source in the Ministry of Interior, Iraq, informed on Friday that Turkey renewed air strikes on ISIS in Syria, extending operations along a 90 km corridor near the Turkish border. Ankara says it is clearing ISIS and protecting it from Kurdish militia expansion.

Turkey has said it has no plans to stay in Syria and simply aims to protect its frontier from ISIS and the Kurdish YPG militia.

It may be mentioned here that Turkey’s 10-day-old offensive has alarmed the West. , It is the first major incursion into Syria by Turkey since the war began five years ago

US has voiced concerns about Turkish strikes on Kurdish-aligned groups that Washington has backed in its battle against ISIS. Germany said it did not want to see a lasting Turkish presence in an already tangled conflict.</s>In this Wednesday photo, Iraqi firefighters battle large fire at oil wells as they are trying to prevent the flames from reaching the residential neighbourhoods in Qayyarah, Iraq (AP photo)

LONDON — Iraqi state oil firm SOMO and Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan have begun jointly exporting crude oil from the giant Kirkuk oilfield again after cutting a preliminary deal on revenue-sharing, trading sources said on Thursday.

The development signals a breakthrough in relations between Baghdad and Erbil, which have been disputing how to share oil and budget revenues for several years amid fiscal problems on both sides and their fight against the terror group, Daesh, militants.

The Kirkuk flows, usually amounting to 150,000 barrels per day and exported via the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, had been suspended since March as Baghdad pushed Kurdistan to cut a new deal.

Before March, Kirkuk flows were unilaterally handled by Kurdistan. SOMO, the State Oil Marketing Organisation, had seen no cargoes exported on its behalf from Ceyhan since mid-2015, when Kurdistan began independent sales of its own crude and Kirkuk oil.

"Shipments on behalf of SOMO have resumed as of six o'clock this morning... While final details of the revenue-sharing deal are still being worked out, the current flows of Kirkuk are being split 50/50 between SOMO and Kurdistan," one shipping source familiar with the operations said.

Besides Kirkuk, Kurdistan produces around 500,000 barrels per day of crude from its own fields and those will still be marketed independently by the semi-autonomous region.

But the compromise over Kirkuk could be the first step towards a comprehensive deal involving all Kurdish oil.

Baghdad has insisted SOMO is the only entity that can market Iraqi crude. Kurdistan started independent exports after accusing Baghdad of not respecting a previous revenue-sharing deal and not transferring enough money from the federal budget.

Baghdad, which exports most of its oil from the Gulf, has said Erbil was not exporting enough crude under that deal.

Kurdistan urgently needed Kirkuk flows to resume because its own exports do not cover its budget needs, forcing the region to borrow billions of dollars from Turkey, oil firms and trading houses guaranteed by future oil sales.

Lost revenues from the halt in Kirkuk flows had been estimated at more than $1 billion since March.

Last week, Baghdad said that if a new revenue deal were not reached, oil from Kirkuk could be exported by truck via Iran. This week, SOMO blacklisted three ships involved in exporting Kurdish oil.

However, a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi and Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan regional government, seems to have broken the ice this week with a preliminary deal reached on Kirkuk oil.

The trading source said final details on how to split the Kirkuk flows could be worked out by mid-September.

Ezat Sabir, head of the Finance Committee in the Kurdish Council of Ministers, said his understanding was that the 50/50 split of Kirkuk oil would remain until the year-end, after which Baghdad and Erbil would try to return to full revenue-sharing.

Erbil has said it was ready to hand over all oil exports to SOMO if Baghdad agreed to transfer $1 billion to Erbil from the federal budget each month.</s>Militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) killed 10 Turkish soldiers and a village guardsman in two separate incidents in Turkey, state media reported on Saturday.

Eight Turkish soldiers were killed during clashes with rebels in the eastern province of Van on Friday, the governor’s office said, quoted by state-run news agency Anadolu.

Eight soldiers were also injured in the same operation against the “separatist terror organisation”, the name Turkey gives to the PKK, Anadolu reported.

Late on Friday, two soldiers and a village guard were killed in an attack on a checkpoint in Mardin in the restive southeast blamed on the PKK, the agency reported.

The guard killed was part of a group of local residents who cooperate with Turkish security forces against the PKK, listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies. Three security guards were also wounded.

In a statement, the Van governor’s office said the condition of those in hospital was “good”, although their treatment continued.

Thirteen PKK fighters were killed by Turkish jets around Tendurek mountains in Van province, the office said, while Anadolu reported that the operation supported by the air force continued.

Since the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in July, Anadolu reported over 600 Turkish security force members have been killed by the PKK in renewed fighting.

The government has responded with military operations against the group, killing more than 7,000 militants in Turkey and northern Iraq, the agency said. It is not possible to independently verify the toll.

Activists claim innocent civilians have also been killed in the offensives.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984.</s>ANKARA, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Turkish air strikes destroyed three buildings used by Islamic State on Friday in north Syria, the military said, the latest action in a 10-day cross-border offensive by Turkish-backed forces that is targeting jihadists and Kurdish militias.

The warplanes struck Arab Ezza and al-Ghundura, which lies a short distance south of the Turkish border and west of the town of Jarablus, which was the first place seized by Turkish-backed forces when they crossed the border on Aug. 24 into Syria.

Turkey has said it wants to clear a swathe of territory running 90 km (55 miles) along its border with Syria. The sites hit on Friday are roughly midway along the line being targeted by Turkey. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Nick Tattersall)</s>Bali, identified by Turkish prosecutors as the most senior Islamic State figure in Turkey, asked a fellow militant in the border city of Gaziantep to draw up a list of potential targets. Cash, suicide bombers and equipment would be sent from Syria, he said.

"Turkey has waged war on us ... so we're waging war back," the Turkish national wrote in an email from Syria, according to documents prepared by Ankara prosecutors and reviewed by Reuters. "I asked who should we hit and they say it does not matter; be it PKK (Kurdish militants), be it Turkish soldiers, be it tourist spots. Whatever you have planned."

The email was sent to Yunus Durmaz, who prosecutors say co-founded Islamic State's Gaziantep cell along with Bali. Durmaz provided a long list of possible targets, including NATO Patriot missile batteries, foreign missions, U.N. offices and a popular nightclub in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya.

Documents that form part of a judicial investigation into the cell, which Turkish prosecutors say carried out at least two major bombings last year, give a rare insight into the genesis and operations of the wider Islamic State network in Turkey.

Islamic State has grown increasingly active in Turkey, according to the government which blames it for seven suicide bombings across the country over the past year, though the group has not claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The prosecution documents show how suspected members of the Gaziantep cell set up safe houses to accommodate fighters, facilitated the passage of some to Syria, rented depots to store weapons and ammunition, paid salaries, kept records of expenses and made bombs and suicide vests with components purchased inside Turkey.

Having a strong presence in Turkey has been crucial to Islamic State's Middle Eastern battle plans and their attempts to strike at the West, as they use the NATO country as a transit route for fighters and equipment.

Hundreds of Turks have been recruited to fight in Syria, while weapons experts say Turkey has become the most important source for components to make improvised bombs used by Islamic State forces.

Turkey has also been used as the gateway between the group's territory, in Iraq and Syria, and Europe - where it has carried out attacks in countries including France and Belgium. The country is also traditionally a popular destination for Western tourists, who have been struck in at least two of the Turkish bombings blamed on Islamic State earlier this year.

The documents regarding the Gaziantep cell were prepared by prosecutors based on suspects' testimonies, email exchanges, security camera footage and digital evidence collected during police raids.

An official at Ankara's main courthouse verified the documents were genuine. The Ankara prosecutors' office could not be reached for comment on the cell or the investigation.

Turkey, initially seen by Western allies as a reluctant partner in the fight against Islamic State, stepped up its campaign in July 2015 by opening by its Incirlik air base to the U.S.-led coalition, making bombing raids on the group's positions in northern Syria easier and more frequent.

The country then became a primary target.

"The planes are hitting us here more," Bali wrote to his fellow Turkish national Durmaz in the email last summer. "I know you have a tough job, but console the hearts of devout Muslims. Hit them ... so we can be happy."

The Turkish attacks blamed on Islamic State have been a factor in Turkey's decision to send troops and tanks into northern Syria for the first time last month in an attempt to drive back the group from its border.

Bali and Durmaz's Turkish cell carried out at least two major bombings, the prosecution documents say: one in July 2015 in the southeastern town of Suruc, where 35 mostly Kurdish activists were killed, and a twin suicide attack in Ankara last October, when more than 100 people died.

Durmaz was also the mastermind of two more attacks carried out earlier this year, Gaziantep governor's office said in a statement on Thursday.

The two men, helped by a core of around a dozen accomplices, trained at least 150 fighters for attacks across Turkey, according to the documents. Their cell ran at least two safe houses and four depots in Gaziantep.

The group bought at least 1.5 tonnes of ammonium nitrate - a chemical used in agriculture but also to make bombs. Police have also seized hand grenades, machine guns, ammunition and bombmaking components such as fuses, ball bearings and explosives in raids on the cell since last October.

"Data points to Turkish Islamic State members manufacturing explosives inside Turkey, including the vests used in at least three, but perhaps more, attacks inside Turkey since 2015," said Aaron Stein, a Turkey specialist at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based international affairs think-tank.

"The vests are far better constructed than the ones used by Islamic State in France and Belgium. These guys are far better trained in bombmaking."

A February report by the UK-based Conflict Armament Research said Turkey was a hub for acquiring bomb-making components which can then be shipped to Syria and Iraq.

"Turkey is the most important choke point for components used in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices by Islamic State forces," it said.

The seven suicide bombings blamed on Islamic State in Turkey since July 2015 have killed more than 250 people. But the group has not claimed responsibility for any of them.

This may be a deliberate strategy, experts say, by a group which has boasted about bombings elsewhere in the world.

"They are connected with Raqqa," said a senior security official who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. "The bombings are a result of instructions from their leaders."

"But they see Turkey as a recruitment area and they don't want to openly say they are targeting a Muslim society. Leaving it as a question works better than spelling it out."

Such considerations may also explain why the targets in Turkey have largely been Kurdish interests or foreign tourists.

Suspected cell member Yakub Sahin said in testimony to prosecutors that he was told that rallies in Suruc and Ankara were targeted because they were members there of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an outlawed group fighting the Turkish state for Kurdish autonomy.

"They are all enemies of God," Durmaz is said to have told Sahin when he expressed doubt over the killing of civilians.

The PKK is closely linked to Kurdish militia fighters in Syria fighting Islamic State. The Suruc and Ankara rallies were both attended by largely civilian pro-Kurdish activists.

It is unclear when the Gaziantep cell was founded, but police began monitoring some members in 2012. Some suspects were detained last year and at least eight have fled to Syria, according to media reports and a police source.

Durmaz himself was killed in May when he detonated a suicide vest he was wearing during a police raid on a Gaziantep safe house. Bali's whereabouts are unknown.

The Gaziantep governor's office declined to comment on the investigation into the cell.

Prosecutors, who launched the investigation after the Ankara bombing last October, say the cell used safe houses to accommodate fighters - both those smuggled into Turkey from Syria, and others en route to Syria to fight for Islamic State.

Hundreds of Turkish citizens are thought to have traveled to fight in Syria over the past four years.

In 2012-2014, many joined Islamist groups including Jabhat al-Nusra fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - who Turkey wants to see ousted. Some later shifted to Islamic State after the group proclaimed its caliphate in 2014.

Turkish officials say at least 700 Turks have joined Islamic State, but some diplomats say the number could be more than 10 times that.

"There was no secret," said one resident in the sleepy border town of Elbeyli, adjacent to Islamic State-held territory, describing vehicles regularly crossing the border at night. He declined to be named for fear of retribution.

"Some people made a fortune out of this and there is still demand. Unless you wipe out its roots, it will not end."</s>ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey says eight soldiers were killed and eight wounded in clashes with Kurdish militants in the country's east.

The governor's office of Van released a statement Saturday on operations against members of the "separatist terror organization," Turkey's description of the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK. The statement says 11 militants were killed in the Friday operations around Tendurek mountain.

The three-decade-long conflict between Turkey and the PKK has killed an estimated 40,000 people. The state-run Anadolu news agency says more than 600 Turkish security personnel and thousands of PKK militants have been killed since a fragile cease-fire collapsed.

Rights groups say hundreds of civilians have also been killed in the clashes.
Turkish Armed Forces claims that it has killed three Kurdistan Workers' Party fighters in air strikes in southeastern Turkey near the borders with Iraq.