Latest update: 27/02/2008 

- Iraq - Kurdistan - Turkey


Turkey: 'No timetable' for Iraq withdrawal
Turkey: 'No timetable' for Iraq withdrawal
A senior envoy to Bagdad said on Wednesday that Turkish troops had no plans to withdraw from Iraq until Kurdish rebel bases there are wiped out. Turkey claims to have killed 77 militants overnight.

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Turkey will not set any timetable for withdrawing its forces from northern Iraq until the threat of Kurdish PKK rebels has been dealt with, a senior Turkish envoy told a news conference in Baghdad on Wednesday.

 

"Our objective is clear, our mission is clear and there is no timetable until ... those terrorist bases are eliminated," Ahmet Davutoglu said after crisis talks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari.

 

Turkey's military General Staff said on Wednesday 77 more Kurdish PKK rebels and five more Turkish soldiers had been killed in heavy fighting in northern Iraq since Tuesday evening.

 

The latest figures bring the total death toll among the rebels to 230 and among soldiers to 24, according to Ankara's estimates. Turkey launched its ground offensive against the PKK in remote, mountainous northern Iraq last Thursday.

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