Turkey Attacks Kurd Separatists

Turkey launched a large-scale military assault against Kurdish separatist bases in northern Iraq Monday, dispatching a 35,000-man force backed by warplanes, armored vehicles and artillery along a front stretching 135 miles through rugged border mountains.

The attack, on the eve of the Newroz spring festival celebrated by many Kurds, marked Turkey’s largest military campaign on foreign soil, including the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, according to government spokesman Yildirim Aktuna.

But Turkey has launched previous raids into Iraq, notably in 1992, when 20,000 troops were sent in to flush rebels from their mountain bases and 2,500 rebels were killed, according to the government.