BAGHDAD, 24 February 2008 (IRIN) - An ongoing Turkish military offensive into Iraq targeting Turkish-Kurdish separatist rebels has forced at least 12 Kurdish families to flee their homes and has destroyed four bridges, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said on 24 February.
"We have not built any camps yet as all these [displaced] families have ended up with relatives but we are closely monitoring developments on the ground. Civilians are scared because they don't know how far the Turkish army will go into Iraq," Dr Saad Haqi, head of IRCS, told IRIN.
"Our teams are ready for any major displacement that could happen as a result of this incursion and are ready to launch aid operations in any area. We are able to assist 2,000 families in each Iraqi province," Haqi added.
The IRCS has set up an operation room in northern Iraq to investigate and issue reports on any damage sustained to infrastructure and property.
"The bombardments have concentrated on eight villages and no casualties have been reported as residents fled before the incursion,” Nawzad Wahab Abdullah, director of IRCS operations in Arbil, said, adding that one of the four bridges destroyed had cut villagers off from their farmland.
“We are coordinating with the Ministry of Health and other parties to ensure that they supply us with medicines, food and non-food items if needed," he said.
Arbil, about 350km north of the capital, Baghdad, is one of three semi-autonomous provinces governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Since 21 February, Turkish military forces have launched ground attacks on Iraqi territory supported by aircraft, helicopters and artillery to bomb the suspected hideouts of Turkish-Kurdish rebels in the remote, mountainous terrain of Kurdistan.
The incursion is the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, the late former president, in 2003.
Iraq's government criticised the offensive on 23 February. "We know the threats that Turkey is facing but military operations will not solve the PKK problem," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told a press conference.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, is fighting for autonomy in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern region of Turkey. It has carried out attacks on Turkish government targets from bases in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The conflict started in 1984 and has claimed as many as 40,000 lives since, according to media reports.
Renewed fighting in December 2007 forced at least 700 families to flee their border villages, the IRCS said. Nearly half of them returned in January to damaged infrastructure and homes.
This new wave of displaced people adds to the approximately 2.4 million Iraqis already internally displaced.
