Erdogan warns Turkey could strike PKK fighters inside Syria

Erdogan warns Turkey could strike PKK fighters inside Syria.(AA).Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of letting Turkey’s Kurdish rebels operate inside the north of the country and warned that Ankara would not hesitate to strike against them. “In the north, it (President Bashar al-Assad’s regime) has allotted five provinces to the Kurds, to the terrorist organization,” Erdogan told Turkish television late Wednesday, referring to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). Asked if Ankara would strike fleeing rebels after an attack on Turkish soil, Erdogan said “That’s not even a matter of discussion, it is a given. That is the objective, that is what must be done.” “That is what we have been doing and will continue to do in Iraq,” he said during a program aired on Kanal 24. “If we occasionally launch arial strikes against terrorist areas it’s because these are measures taken because of defense needs.” Turkey regularly bombs suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
“I wish we could get some armed support from Turkey,” said Ubed Muse, speaking to AFP during a break from the bloody battles in which he has led a band of 45 rebels near Aleppo, Syria’s second city. “If we -- Kurds and Arabs -- join ranks, and are able to get military support from Turkey, we can fight not only the regime but also the PKK,” said Muse, sitting in the secret flat in Turkey’s central Antakya province. “We are in need of weapons,” Muse said, repeating a common concern of the insurgents, thousands of whom have been based in Turkey. “With armed support from Turkey, we can hit PKK bases inside Syria because we all know about their whereabouts and which regions they control.”Turkish newspapers have published with alarm pictures of Kurdish flags fluttering from buildings in northern Syria and reported that parts of the region had fallen into the hands of the PKK or its Syrian branch, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The head of the opposition Syrian National Council said this week that Syrian forces had “entrusted” the northern region to the PKK or the PYD and then withdrawn. Turkey’s top security, military and political officials held talks Wednesday about the activities of Kurdish rebels in Syria. “The latest developments in Syria, the activities of the terrorist separatist group in our country and in neighboring countries, were discussed at the meeting,” Erdogan’s office said. Turkish officials have frequently accused Syria of aiding the PKK, saying recent attacks targeting Turkish security forces were carried out by rebels infiltrating from Syria.Hmmmm.......Obama's BFF ally in the fight against 'terrorism'.Read the full story here.