Turkey | Warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets

Smoke rises following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Kobani, Syria as fighting continues between Syrian Kurds and the militants of Islamic State group

Turkish warplanes have struck suspected Kurdish rebel positions in southeastern Turkey, media reports said yesterday, the first major airstrikes against the rebel group since peace talks began two years ago to end a 30-year insurgency.
Turkish media had varying accounts, but the private Dogan news agency said Turkish F-16 jets hit Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, targets in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq on Monday. A military statement said the armed forces had responded “in the strongest way” to shelling of a military outpost by the rebels, without specifying that airstrikes were launched.
Firat news agency, which is close to the PKK, confirmed the airstrikes, saying at least five locations around Hakkari were targeted. The agency had a different version of events, however, saying that the military had attacked rebel fighters in the region with artillery for three days, forcing the PKK to retaliate by firing at a military unit.
The attack comes amid heightened tensions in Turkey over Islamic State militants’ advance on the Syrian town of Kobani. Kurds in Turkey accuse the government of standing idly by while Syrian Kurds are being slaughtered in the besieged town across the border.
The return to violence between Turkey and the PKK illustrates the complicated position Turkey faces as it negotiates its role with the U.S. and NATO allies in the anti-Islamic State coalition. The PKK is an important force on the ground in both Iraq and Syria fighting the Islamic State group. But Turkey still views it as a dangerous terrorist adversary.
Kurdish leaders, including jailed PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan, have warned that the fall of Kobani will end the peace process, while PKK commander Cemal Bayik has been quoted in Turkish media as saying that some fighters who had withdrawn from Turkish territory as part of the peace efforts have now returned to Turkey.
More than 30 people were killed last week as Kurds, angered at what they said was Turkish impediment to efforts to defend Kobani, clashed with police and supporters of an Islamist group in cities across Turkey. At least two police officers were among the dead, according to Turkish authorities.
Turkey has said it won’t join the fight against the Islamic State militants unless the U.S.-led coalition also targets Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

airstrikes hit jihadi positions in syria

Activists say the U.S.-led coalition has launched several airstrikes on positions of Islamic State group militants in northern and eastern Syria, most on the town of Kobani near Turkey.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees say some of the airstrikes targeted the eastern town of Mayadeen.
The Observatory said the airstrikes struck oil refineries near Mayadeen, sparking a huge fire.
The group and Idriss Nassan, a local Kurdish official from Kobani, said yesterday that intense airstrikes hit members of the Islamic State group around the town.
Nassan said Kurdish militiamen captured the Tel Shair hill that overlooks the town and brought down the black flag of the Islamic State group.
Kobani has been under attack for about a month. Suzan Fraser and Desmond Butler, Ankara
AP