The eight-day ground operations of the Turkish Armed Forces have ended, announced the General Staff today.

The army said that “targets have been achieved” and that the ground forces had returned to Turkey on the morning of 29 February 2008.

Decision to withdraw "not influenced by others" 

The General Staff was keen to point out that the decision of when to start and stop operations had been taken without influence from anyone else.

US President George W. Bush had said on Thursday (28 February) that Turkey had reached its targets in Northern Iraq and should withdraw. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had also said previously that operations should only last one or two weeks.

On Thursday, the British Guardian newpaper had cited a high-level authority as saying that operations would end in a few days.

267 deaths...

According to the statement, the combined ground and air operations which started on 21 February cost the lives of 240 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, 24 soldiers and 3 village guards.

It further said that many of the remaining PKK militants in the area, estimated at around 300 before the attacks,  had withdrawn, and that shelters, communication possibilities, anti-aircraft positions and provisions had been destroyed.

According to the General Staff, civilians have not been affected by the attacks; the opposite have been claimed by local sources in Iraq who have spoken of villagers forced to flee their villages for caves and the mountains.

PKK has also claimed victory 

The General Staff conceded that operations in the Zap region would not totally destroy the PKK, but that it had shown that “Northern Iraq is not safe for the PKK.”

According to the Reuters news agency, the PKK has announced its own victory. Ahmed Deniz, the PKK’s Northern Iraq foreign affairs spokesperson, said that Turkey had withdrawn because of the heavy battles.

A similar statement was cited in the pro-Kurdish Firat News; Özgür Gabar, press spokesperson of the PKK’s military branch, the HPG, said that only 9 militants had been killed during the operations and that twelve soldiers had lost their lives on the last day.  (TK/AG)