Turkey Invades Iraq Again To Go After Kurdish Terror Groups, World Shrugs Shoulders

This isn't an unusual situation. Turkey has repeatedly invaded sovereign Iraqi territory to go after Kurdish terror groups that ignore the Turkey-Iraq border and use northern Iraq as a safe haven from Turkey efforts to stamp out Kurdish autonomy in its own territory.

The PKK is believed to have killed 24 Turkish soldiers, and the Turkish government is threatening massive retaliation.

Turkey launched air and ground assaults on Kurdish militants in Iraq on Wednesday, vowing to take "great revenge" after 24 Turkish soldiers were killed in one of the deadliest Kurdish attacks in decades.

Security officials said about 100 fighters from the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, mounted simultaneous attacks on seven remote army outposts in Cukurca and Yuksekova districts of Hakkari province, on the rugged southeastern border with Iraq.

The PKK, which has bases in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, did not immediately claim responsibility. But the fighting, in which Turkey said it killed 15 Kurdish militants after the initial assault, threatened wider instability at a time of upheaval in nearby Syria and for U.S. forces in Iraq.

Turkish security sources said commandos pushed up to 8 km (5 miles) into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish fighters and warplanes struck targets around a guerrilla camp on the Zap river in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan.

"No one should forget this. Those that inflict this pain on us will endure far greater pain," Turkish President Abdullah Gul told reporters in Istanbul.

"Those that think they will weaken our state with these attacks or think they will bring our state into line, they will see that the revenge for these attacks will be very great and they will endure it many times over."

Twenty-four soldiers were killed and 18 wounded in the attacks, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said at a televised news conference in which he said wide-ranging operations, including hot pursuit missions, had been launched.

These repeated incursions have continued to increase a body count, but the world doesn't even bother with shrugging its shoulders over this situation. It involves two sovereign nations and a nationalist group that seeks its own country on portions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. The Turkey-Iraq border is all too frequently crossed by Turkey to go after the Kurdish group, PKK.

The fighting has left more than 40,000 dead on both sides of the border, and Kurds make up about 20% of Turkey's population. The PKK has modified its demands over the years and now seeks more reforms and greater liberties and more rights, but the Turkish government has rebuffed such efforts.

Yet the hypocrisy over the silence on the Turkish actions is multiplied by the fact that Turkey and other countries will wail and holler when Israel goes after Palestinian terrorists in Gaza or disputed territories on the West Bank. The two situations could not be more alike in general principle (both Kurdish and Palestinians groups seek statehood on part or all of territory of a sovereign nation and both engage in terror attacks to further their agendas), but the diplomatic response could not be more different.

Whereas the Turkish government is rarely rebuked in public, let alone by the United Nations, the Israeli government is continually put on the defensive at the United Nations for a fraction of the grievances committed by the Turkish governments over the decades. It's a double standard that continues to this day.

Israel Continues Taking Fire From Gaza

The kassams, Grad missiles, and mortars continue to be fired into Israel from Gaza, and media reports claim that Hamas is backing off an all-out confrontation with Israel and floating a ceasefire/hudna?

If Hamas isn't firing all the rockets and mortars, they certainly are giving a wink and nod to the other terror groups and factions that are - because Hamas has no intention of cracking down against other terror groups unless they pose a direct threat to Hamas' ability to rule with an iron fist in Gaza. The PLFP says that a ceasefire is a dangerous thing for Palestinians, which makes no sense until you realize that the only reason that these terror groups thrive is that they've succeeded in indoctrinating entire generations of Palestinians into refusing to accept a Jewish state of Israel living alongside a Palestinian state. Yet, a hudna would play into the terrorists' hands since they'd use the opportunity to regroup and rearm, just as they've done since Operation Cast Lead. The ceasefires/hudnas have not stopped the violence, but any reduction in fire from Gaza is reported by the international media as a "relative lull" even though the attacks have continued unabated.

No nation on the planet would tolerate such a situation for anywhere near as long as Israel has.

Wouldn't you know it that the moment Israel strikes back hard to defend itself against terrorists, the claims of disproportionate use of force come bubbling to the surface. And once again, Turkish leaders are the ones who are busy touting this nonsense.

Turkey has no problem using force against the PKK, a Kurdish group that claims a region that includes parts of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq as its own. Indeed, one could call that use of force disproportionate, but I don't. It's military force designed to combat and defeat an enemy. In Israel's case, Hamas and other terror groups are entrenched within significant civilian populations with the express purpose of maximizing a body count should Israel return fire.

Hamas and other terror groups fire hundreds of rockets and mortars since the beginning of the year, and each and every one was with the intention of murdering and maiming Israelis and to cause significant property damage. Israel's response has been extremely limited - firing only in significant measure after an anti-tank missile blew up a bus carrying two people - injuring one critically. To go after the terrorists, Israel has carried out airstrikes against terror targets and the smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Sinai.

Those aren't disproportionate.

They are barely sufficient to deter Hamas from further attacks.

And now the Arab League is calling on the UN to impose a no-fly zone on Israel over Gaza. That suggestion comes on the heels of UN efforts in Libya to thwart further human rights abuses by Khadafi against his own countrymen and the Arab League thinks it has hit upon a winning strategy to give Hamas cover in its ongoing war against Israel. Make no doubt about it - Hamas is at war with Israel, and but for Israel's restraint, Hamas continues to exist and acts as a thorn in Israel's side.

None of the Arab League nations would tolerate such acts by a terror group against the regime - not Syria, not Iran, not Saudi Arabia, not the UAE, nor any of the other nations in the League. This is an effort to undermine Israel's right to defend itself from attack.

Turkish Military Using Chemical Weapons On Kurds?

The German paper Der Spiegel is reporting that the Turkish military used chemical weapons against the Kurdish group PKK in an incident dating back to September 2009.

German experts have confirmed the authenticity of photographs that purport to show PKK fighters killed by chemical weapons. The evidence puts increasing pressure on the Turkish government, which has long been suspected of using such weapons against Kurdish rebels. German politicians are demanding an investigation.

It would be difficult to exceed the horror shown in the photos, which feature burned, maimed and scorched body parts. The victims are scarcely even recognizable as human beings. Turkish-Kurdish human rights activists believe the people in the photos are eight members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) underground movement, who are thought to have been killed in September 2009.

In March, the activists gave the photos to a German human rights delegation comprised of Turkey experts, journalists and politicians from the far-left Left Party, as SPIEGEL reported at the end of July. Now Hans Baumann, a German expert on photo forgeries has confirmed the authenticity of the photos, and a forensics report released by the Hamburg University Hospital has backed the initial suspicion, saying that it is highly probable that the eight Kurds died "due to the use of chemical substances."

Did the Turkish army in fact use chemical weapons and, by doing so, violate the Chemical Weapons Convention it had ratified?

The Turkish military refuses to comment on the issue, although Turkish human rights groups have been demanding answers. This is the same Turkish government that demands that the world hold Israel accountable for Israel's sovereign right to defend itself against terrorists and those who support terrorists by attempting to run through Israel's blockade of Gaza.

This is the same Turkish government that doesn't think that human rights laws apply to themselves. It's a continuing saga of doublespeak and double talk.

Turkey Invades Iraq? Or Not?

These are truly dangerous times. If some reports are to be believed, Turkey has invaded northern Iraq in hot pursuit of Kurdish terrorists, ostensibly the PKK, who have been a thorn in the side of the Turkish government for years.

Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials told The Associated Press.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

"It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands," one of the officials told the AP by telephone. The official is based in southeast Turkey, where the military has been battling separatist Kurdish rebels since they took up arms in 1984.

The U.S. military said it could not confirm the reports but was "very concerned."

So far, the only confirmation we've got of the situation is via AP wire reporters. Other reports could not confirm that Turkish forces entered Iraq.

Turkey opposed the US invasion in 2003 and refused to allow the US to station the US 4th Infantry Division in Turkey so that it could invade Turkey from the North and link up with other coalition elements around Baghdad - encircling the Iraqi forces. That refusal meant that the US had to alter its invasion plans and meant that the 4th ID had to be deployed well after the conflict was well underway.

The Kurdish region in Iraq has been one of the most stable parts of the country and has been semi-autonomous since the 1991 Gulf War and subsequent no-fly zones enabled the Kurds to operate without fear of Saddam and the Ba'athists. They also operate their own militia, the peshmerga.

UPDATE:
The White House and Turkish government both say that no new activity is going on in Northern Iraq. As opposed to old activities?