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Turkey touts Iranian support for PKK offensive

Ankara claims it has Iran's support for the operation rolling out against the Kurdistan Workers Party in northern Iraq, but Tehran has yet to respond officially.
Fighters from a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) 
camp stand guard during a news conference in the remote Qandil mountains near the Iraq-Turkish border in Sulaimaniya, 330 km (205 miles) northeast of Baghdad, August 13, 2010. Picture taken August 13, 2010.  REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - GM1E68E1OH601

Turkey says Iran has offered verbal support for its latest offensive against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels scattered across the forbidding Qandil Mountain range separating Iran from Iraq. Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli told the state-run Anadolu news agency in a wide-ranging interview today, “Our offer to Iran was to carry out the operation together. Iran, in its remarks at least, has voiced very important support.”

His comments came a day after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that the operation against Qandil had started with 20 Turkish fighter jets destroying 14 PKK targets in the region.

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