PKK attack raises questions over U.S. intelligence in Turkish media

“Long range heavy weaponry cannot be moved, deployed and implemented without the authorities that are responsible for the security of the northern Iraq receiving information about it,” Milliyet daily's Ankara bureau chief Fikret Bila commented in his column on Sunday.

Fifteen soldiers were killed when members of the terrorist organization, PKK, crossed the border from northern Iraq and attacked the Aktutun Gendarmerie Border Unit in Semdinli town of the southeastern province of Hakkari on Friday afternoon.

The separatist terrorist organization attacked the region with heavy weaponry support from the north of Iraq, which attributed to the large number of casualties, the General Staff told.

The latest domestic offensives, air strikes and cross border operations launched by the Turkish Army had neutralized the PKK for nearly one year, Bila said, adding that this side of the latest attack should be considered important.

Turkey, provided with intelligence by the United States, had stepped up military action against the PKK since December and staged several cross-border operations, including a brief land offensive in February, against PKK bases in mountainous northern Iraq over the past 12 months.

“Being supported with intelligence and launching cross border operations on PKK camps is necessary, but is insufficient as the only solution,” Murat Yetkin from Radikal daily also said.

Friday’s PKK attack was the fifth launched against the Aktutun gendarmerie station, in which a total of 44 soldiers have been killed since 1992. The attack was the second largest after a 2007 PKK strike that killed 13 soldiers in the southeastern Daglica province.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by much of the international community including the United States and the EU.