Turkish planes bomb Iraq village, no major incursion

By David Clarke and Thomas Grove

DAHUK, Iraq/CIZRE, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes attacked a village in northern Iraq on Wednesday, an Iraqi Kurdish security official said, but Turkey said it wanted to hold back from a major incursion to give diplomacy a chance.

The Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a Kurdish village in mountainous country near Shiranish Islam, 25 km (15 miles) northeast of the northern town of Dahuk, had been heavily bombed at midday. He gave no details of damage.

The Turkish government is under great domestic pressure to strike separatist PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) guerrillas in northern Iraq who killed 12 Turkish soldiers on Sunday as part of an intensified campaign against government troops.

Washington and Baghdad fear a major Turkish incursion into northern Iraq could destabilize the whole region.

Turkish security sources said earlier that Turkish warplanes had flown a series of sorties 20 km (12 miles) into Iraq in the past three days, while some 300 troops had advanced about 10 km (6 miles) into northern Iraq.

A total of 34 PKK rebels were killed and all the Turkish troops had returned, a Turkish official said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday that Turkey needed better intelligence about the location of Kurdish rebels before launching major strikes into north Iraq, and the State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would visit Turkey to try to reduce tension between Turkey and Iraq.

Rice will be in Turkey on November 2 and 3 for meetings with President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.

ECONOMIC MEASURES

Turkey's powerful National Security Council, comprising political leaders and army top brass, met for six hours on Wednesday and said it had recommended that the government take economic measures against groups which aid the PKK.

It gave no details of possible measures, but northern Iraq depends heavily on Turkey for power, water and food supplies.

Turkey, which has NATO's second biggest army, has deployed up to 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, fighter jets and helicopter gunships along the mountainous border in case it decides on a large-scale strike.

State-run Anatolian news agency said Turkish warplanes and helicopters had bombed PKK positions in southeast Turkey on Wednesday.

The troop build-up was aimed at keeping pressure on Baghdad to honor promises to crack down on the estimated 3,000 PKK rebels who use northern Iraq as a base.

A Turkish official quoted Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as saying Iraq might hand over PKK militants to Turkey, but Talabani denied this.