Iraqi govt. charged with failure to repel Turkish attacks

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: An Iraqi political analyst has charged the Iraqi government on Thursday with failure to direct a firm response towards the recent Turkish attacks in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan border areas. Kurdish sources in northern Iraq had reported early in the day that special Turkish forces have crossed the borders into Iraqi Kurdistan on Wednesday to chase armed men of the anti-Ankara Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), after their killing of 24 Turkish soldiers in attacks in southern Turkey. The Kurdish Analyst, Ribin Rassoul, had stated to IraqiNews.com news agency that “the Iraqi government won’t have a firm response towards the Turkish invasion.” “The reason for such position is that the Iraqi government had failed to interact with the Turkish dossier and its position towards the PKK and the loss of trust among Iraqi political forces and weakness of the government to take a military attitude to protect the Iraqi soil,” he stressed. On the other hand, Rassoul said that the “Central government and the Kurdistan Region’s government have failed to expel the PKK forces, even if they wanted to do that.” “The Iranians had reached a decision to settle their problem with the Kurds and reached an agreement with the anti-Tehran PJAK party, adding that the problem of PKK is a Turkish problem and not an Iraqi problem, that must settled by Turkey,” he said. The Spokesman for the Kurdistan Peshmerga Forces, Jabbar Yawar, had denied reports on Wednesday that Turkish forces have crossed the borders into Iraqi Kurdistan, saying that clashes took place between Turkish forces and the anti-Ankara PKK forces inside Turkish Hakary area. But the PKK announced on Wednesday that 5 of its armed men have been killed in clashes with the Turkish Army inside Hakary area, close to Iraqi Kurdistan borders. SKH (ST) 223