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Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish rebels as tensions stoked by Islamic State fight Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish rebels, complicating fight against Islamic State
(about 2 hours later)
SANLIURFA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes have carried out airstrikes against an outlawed Kurdish group for the first time since a 2013 cease-fire, reports said Tuesday, in attacks that underscored the regional political spillover from battles against the Islamic State. SANLIURFA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish insurgents for the first time in nearly two years, Turkish media reported Tuesday, in attacks that threatened to further complicate efforts to persuade Ankara to join the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State.
The bombardment targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, risked further inflaming tensions with the country’s Kurdish population, which has protested Turkey’s refusal to help Kurdish Syrian fighters trying to hold back Islamic State fighters just across the border in the town of Kobane. The bombardment against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, heightened tensions between Turkey’s government and the country’s Kurdish population, which has been angered by Ankara’s refusal to help Kurdish fighters defending the Syrian border town of Kobane against the advances of the Islamic State militant group.
Clashes last week between Turkish security forces and Kurdish demonstrators left more than 30 people dead. It also highlighted the internal pressures complicating Washington’s efforts to persuade Turkey to expand its role within the international coalition confronting the Islamic State, a radical and heavily armed Islamist group also known as ISIS or ISIL. The Turkish airstrikes on PKK targets coincided with a sharp increase in U.S. attacks on the Islamic State in Kobane aimed at helping the Kurdish fighters in the town, who are affiliated with the PKK.
Separately, U.S. and Saudi warplanes carried out 22 airstrikes Monday and Tuesday against Islamic State targets in Syria, and U.S. attack aircraft conducted one strike in Iraq against the militants, the U.S. Central Command said. The U.S. Central Command said it carried out 21 strikes in and around Kobane on Tuesday, and it suggested that the attacks are starting to have an impact. Kurdish activists reported that Kurdish fighters recaptured a strategic hill to the west of the town from the jihadists, helped by the cover provided by the U.S. strikes.
The unusually large number of airstrikes in Syria focused on Islamic State positions near Kobane, and the Central Command reported indications that the strikes “have slowed ISIL advances.” It said one strike near Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria hit a modular oil refinery, one of the Islamic State’s key sources of cash. “Indications are that airstrikes have slowed ISIL advances,” a CENTCOM statement said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State. “However, the security situation on the ground there remains fluid, with ISIL attempting to gain territory and Kurdish militia continuing to hold out.”
“These airstrikes are designed to interdict ISIL reinforcements and resupply and prevent ISIL from massing combat power on the Kurdish-held portions” of Kobane, the Central Command said. The gains eased concerns that Kobane is in imminent danger of falling to the militants. But Turkey’s reluctance to do more to help Kobane’s Kurds has provoked a backlash at home, with Kurds staging protests nationwide and PKK leaders threatening to call off a two-year-old peace process if Kobane is lost to the Islamic State.
Turkey, a NATO member, is participating in a meeting of military envoys Tuesday outside Washington to discuss strategies against the Islamic State. The PKK, which the United States and Turkey have deemed a terrorist organization, led a nearly 30-year uprising for greater rights in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast before a cease-fire last year brought hope for an end to the bloodshed. The battle for Kobane has threatened to reignite the war, and PKK fighters have begun returning to Turkey from bases in northern Iraq where they had retrenched after the cease-fire was announced.
The PKK led a nearly 30-year uprising for greater rights in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast before a cease-fire plan was announced last year. The PKK remains designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and Turkey, and the Kurdish militia in Kobane is an affiliate of the PKK — part of a web of Kurdish factions stretching across Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Turkish jets struck PKK positions overnight close to the southeastern town of Daglica — near the borders with Iran and Iraq — after Kurdish rebels launched an attack on a military barracks nearby, the Hurriyet Daily News and other Turkish news outlets reported.
Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News said the overnight airstrikes hit the southeastern town of Daglica — near Turkey’s borders with Iran and Iraq — after Kurdish rebels launched an attack against a military barracks nearby. The Firat News Agency, which is close to the PKK, said airstrikes hit at least five locations, and it claimed that the Turkish military had shelled PKK bases for three days beforehand.
The Firat news agency, which is close to the PKK, said airstrikes hit at least five locations , but also claimed that the Turkish military shelled PKK bases for three days. In an effort to find a solution to the tangle, Iraqi Kurdish leaders hosted a meeting of rival Syrian Kurdish factions in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan on Tuesday aimed at reaching a settlement that would ease Turkish concerns about helping Kobane.
PKK fighters have started returning to Turkey from bases in northern Iraq, where they retrenched under terms of the cease-fire. PKK leaders have threatened to call off the peace process if Kobane falls into the hands of the extremists. The initiative led by Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, sought to persuade the Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD), which oversees the faction fighting in Kobane, to form an alliance with another Syrian Kurdish faction, the Kurdish National Council (KNC), which has close ties to Barzani.
The Turkish air force action against the Kurdish militants came as U.S. warplanes kept up attacks against the Islamic State militants around Kobane, carrying out more airstrikes early Tuesday, according to witnesses. Their dispute goes to the heart of the wider Syrian war, with the PYD aligned, through its affiliation with the PKK, to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the KNC allied to the Syrian opposition fighting Assad.
The airstrikes helped Kurds regain some of the territory lost to the Islamic State in overnight fighting, Kurdish activists said. Turkey has said that it will allow support to reach the Kurds in Kobane if the PYD turns against Assad. Barzani, who has good ties with Turkey, has agreed to provide aid as long as the PYD mends fences with the KNC, offering the outlines of a wider settlement to the conundrum.
On Monday, Turkey denied that it had reached any “new agreement” with the United States to allow the use of the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey for attacks on the Islamic State, despite suggestions from the Obama administration that a deal had been reached. The priority, said Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd and former Iraqi foreign minister, is for the factions to set aside their differences, which could prove difficult.
A statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said talks are continuing between Ankara and Washington. “Our main concern is to get them united now,” he said. “There is an immediate and evident danger of losing everything.”
The Obama administration has been pressing Turkey to allow warplanes to use Incirlik, where the United States bases aircraft under existing NATO agreements. If there is an agreement, it would open the door to “help and assistance from other sources,” he added.
U.S. officials said Sunday that Turkey had agreed to allow the coalition to use Turkish military bases for the fight against the Islamic State and to use Turkish territory as part of a training program for moderate Syrian ­opposition fighters. Turkey has refused to offer military support to the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State unless the coalition also targets the Assad regime. The United States has been pressing Turkey to allow American warplanes to launch strikes from the U.S. air base at Incirlik, but Turkey continues to deny the request.
In a reflection of the sensitivity of the matter, U.S. officials on Monday were reluctant to further address or clarify the issue for fear of irritating the Turks. In remarks to lawmakers in Ankara on Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reiterated that the coalition should extend its fight to the Assad regime.
Turkey has sent tanks and troops to the Syrian border, but has refused to send forces into Kobane. Turkey has set a series of demands for the international coalition battling the Islamic State, including creation of a border buffer zone in Syrian territory. “Turkey will not embark on an adventure [in Syria] at the insistence of some other countries, unless the international community does what is necessary and introduces an integrated strategy,” he said. “We don’t approve of one-dimensional policies.”
Up to 200,000 new refugees have fled into Turkey in recent weeks from Kobane. They joined more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees who sought haven in Turkey from Syria’s other crisis: An ongoing civil war between rebels and the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
liz.sly@washpost.com
Brian Murphy and William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.Brian Murphy and William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.