At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 35 more wounded as Turkey, Iran and the United States reported carrying out air strikes and shelling against militants in Iraq.
Turkey sent warplanes into northern Iraq today to retaliate against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (P.K.K.), which staged a deadly ambush in Turkey that left 11 Turkish soldiers and one village guard dead. Fourteen more soldiers were wounded. Several P.K.K. targets in Iraq were reportedly bombed, but no casualties were reported. A government spokesman in the Iraqi town of Sedaka said that many of the civilian residents had already fled the area during recent Iranian shelling.
For decades, the P.K.K. and the offshoot Party Of A Free Life Of Kurdistan (P.J.A.K.) have been fighting a guerilla war against Turkey and Iran, respectively, using secret bases in a sparsely populated, mountainous region of northern Iraq. They are seeking an independent Kurdistan. Due to the remoteness of the locations, no independent confirmation of casualties is likely to occur.
Meanwhile, Brigadier General Jeffrey Buchanan admitted the United States carried out two "unilateral" air strikes in June. Although witnesses regularly report seeing U.S. helicopters, this is the first official mention of ongoing activity not involving Iraqi security forces. Several of the alleged insurgents who were targeted were killed. Furthermore, Promised Day Brigade (P.D.B.) militiamen may have been involved in one of the strikes. The Brigade was created to succeed the Mahdi Army and is made up of a smaller, handpicked group of fighters. Coincidentally, the P.D.B. issued its own "news release" today, claiming several attacks that "killed and wounded many U.S. soldiers."
A suicide bomber struck at the home of a police chief in Tarmiya. The chief wasn’t at home at the time, but three people were killed and seven others were wounded instead.
In Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Zaafaraniya stationary shop, where they killed the owner and wounded three customers. Five more people were wounded during a bombing in Harthiya. A blast in Adhamiya wounded three civilians. A hand grenade explosion in Ghadeer wounded three policemen. A bomb last night killed one person and wounded two others in Yarmouk.
In Mosul, a roadside bomb targeting a group of judges killed one policeman and wounded another when it exploded. Gunmen killed a man at a marketplace. A hand grenade lobbed at police wounded a child instead. Three people were wounded during a separate grenade attack. A Syrian suspect was arrested for illegally entering Iraq. Two other suspects detained.
Three bombs planted near the Kurdistan Democratic Party offices killed one person and wounded seven others.
A sticky bomb in Jalawla killed an agricultural engineer.
