Turkey’s Incursion Into Iraq Does Little To Stop Kurd Rebels Guerrillas Melted Into The Mountains, Launched Hit-Andrun Attacks On Turkish Troops

Turkey’s largest military operation in modern history is intended to stop hit-andrun attacks from northern Iraq. But two weeks into the offensive there is little indication the Kurdish rebels have been deterred.

Many of the rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland, have disappeared into the northern Iraqi countryside, and there is no sign they will not resume their attacks when Turkish troops withdraw.

Turkey sent 35,000 troops backed by warplanes, attack helicopters, tanks and artillery into northern Iraq on March 20 to eradicate camps used by about 2,800 guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

The government claims to have killed fewer than 300 rebels, and troops are having trouble finding the others. Many have blended into the local Kurdish population, and others apparently have moved deeper into Iraq.

Still others are camping in the mountains and staging hit-and-run attacks on the soldiers, then slipping away.

“We see the soldiers, but they do not see us,” a PKK guerrilla recently bragged to reporters in northern Iraq. He would not give his name.

The area is controlled by Iraqi Kurds who want independence from Baghdad. Patrolled by allied warplanes since the end of the Gulf War, it is beyond the reach of Iraq’s military.

Turkish officials say it is too early to judge the operation’s success, and that they never intended to kill every rebel in the area.

“Our objective was clear: to eliminate command and control elements of the PKK,” said Ozdem Sanberk, deputy foreign minister.

But international opposition to a permanent Turkish presence on Iraqi soil is mounting. And when Turkey withdraws there is no indication the rebels will not resume their attacks, as they did after another massive Turkish offensive into northern Iraq in 1992 that lasted six weeks.

“The fact is that it is not at all easy to deal with guerrilla warfare,” said Dogu Ergil, a professor of political science at the University of Ankara.

Nobody knows northern Iraq’s mountainous terrain, where thousands of caves are hidden, better than the PKK guerrillas, who are used to dealing with bad weather and rugged geography, he said.

The PKK had weeks of advance warning because of troop transfers and arms buildups in southeast Turkey, said freelance journalist Koray Duzgoren.

Murat Karayalcin, foreign minister until a cabinet reshuffle this week, acknowledged: “You cannot possibly get ready for such an immense operation in secrecy.”

The warning gave PKK rebels time to move deeper inside northern Iraq. Turkish troops have gone as far as 27 miles into Iraq.

The rebels got a large quantity of arms from the Iraqi army when it moved out of northern Iraq at the end of the Gulf War. They have become especially adept with small mines. Twenty-two Turkish soldiers have died in the operation, some from mine explosions.

Military sources said guerrillas also have been using booby traps, like live hand grenades placed under rebel bodies or under pornographic magazines.