Turkish sources say 13 Kurdish guerilla fighters killed, PKK denies

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Thirteen members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in a raid by Turkish warplanes on an area in northern Iraq on Friday, according to the Turkish Anatolian news agency. “The 13 PKK fighters were killed in the area of Haqquq late this week while hideouts and logistical units of the organization were destroyed,” the official news agency quoted Turkish military sources as saying. However, an official at the PKK relations office, Hafal Roz Hallat, discredited the reports. “None of the PKK headquarters in northern Iraq came under attacks this week,” Hallat said, adding the last Turkish air attacks took place on February 5, 2009 but left no casualties. The PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, which is banned in Turkey, has been leading an armed campaign inside Turkey since 1984. Iraqi border areas in the Kurdistan region, adjacent to Turkey and Iran, are coming under occasional Turkish air attacks and Iranian artillery shelling allegedly to strike the strongholds of the PKK and the PJAK ( Partiya Jiyana Azada Kurdistanê in Kurdish or Kurdistan Free Life Party), both are against Turkey and Iran respectively. AmR (P) 1