Turkey, Iran Coordinating Iraq Attacks

ANKARA - Turkey's army chief on June 5 said that Turkey and Iran were coordinating raids on the northern Iraq-based Kurdish separatists, NTV television reported.

"With Iran we made coordinated attacks. If necessary we will do it again. We are sharing intelligence with Iran," General Ilker Basbug told reporters in Ankara.

Basbug said the two countries had launched simultaneous attacks on the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and their allies, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), from within their respective borders. He said the attacks took place more than one to two months ago.

The general's comments come after attacks by both Iraq and Turkey on PKK positions in northern Iraq in recent months.

In February, the Turkish army launched a week-long cross-border incursion into northern Iraq in a bid to destroy PKK camps. According to the Turkish military, 240 PKK fighters, 24 Turkish soldiers and three village guards employed by Turkey were killed in operation.

Since the operation the Turkish Air Force has also launched a number of air strikes against PKK positions in Iraq.

Iran has in recent months also stepped up cross-border shelling of positions in mountainous northern Iraq from where the group launch raids into Iran. The PJAK is part of an alliance of Kurdish rebel groups which includes the PKK.

Ankara blames the separatist group for the deaths of more than 32,000 people since the early 1980s when the PKK began its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east of Turkey.

The PKK and the PJAK are considered by the United States and the European Union to be a terrorist group.