Unsure where the Manpad (which is Russian) came from. It could be from various sources, including Israel who support the Kurds. Ankara would like to make up with Israel to top their support and to get Israeli gas in the event the Russians turn off the tap.
Kurds claim downing of Turkish helicopter bombing them over Iraqi Kurdistan - reports
3
March,
2016
Reports
have emerged that Kurds have shot down a helicopter over Iraqi
Kurdistan, which they say was used in airstrikes against them.
Turkish officials have made no comment, but a source confirmed to RT
that the incident took place.
Previously
Ankara acknowledged conducting airstrikes on alleged PKK targets in
Iraq. Turkish military is also targeting Kurds inside the country and
shelling Kurdish militias in northern Syria.
One
sortie apparently went wrong for a Turkish assault helicopter as
Iraqi Kurdish militia claim they shot the aircraft down
Kani
Xulam, from the American Kurdish Information Network, told RT that
official Ankara would refrain from reporting any losses in operations
against the Kurds, striving to portray the Turkish military as “an
invincible power that cannot be beaten.”
The
Turkish authorities are aiming to make the Kurds submit to them
and “come
down on their knees,” he
said.
Xulam
said “scores
of Turkish soldiers” were
taken prisoner by the Kurds with the Turkish government never
acknowledging such facts.
In
the case of the allegedly downed helicopter, there is no reference
about the incident in Turkish media, yet the story is now emerging in
Kurdish media, Xulam said.
No
Turkish military losses ever make it into national mainstream media,
Middle East political analyst Shwan Zulal told RT.
The
Kurdish PKK militia, which may be responsible for the alleged downing
of the Turkish helicopter, traditionally remains idle during the
harsh winter months.
However, it will be active from the beginning of
spring, which explains why Turkey has recently been shelling Kurdish
positions in the mountains, Zulal said.
Turkish jets strike Kurdish positions in Iraq amid rising tension between Ankara & Baghdad http://on.rt.com/6yz5
With
the military operation against the Kurds ongoing in Turkey for months
now, the violence is likely to escalate further, Zulal predicted.
The
Turkish military has been operating against Kurdish PKK militia in
northern Iraq since the early 1990s.
In
September 2015, the Turkish parliament prolonged a mandate allowing
the deployment of its military in neighboring Syria and Iraq to fight
Kurdish militants.
Early
last December, Ankara started carrying out airstrikes targeting
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) forces in northern Iraq.
Tensions
have recently spiked between Ankara and Baghdad after Turkey deployed
more than 100 troops equipped with tanks and artillery to Iraq’s
northern Nineveh governorate, saying they will train forces battling
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
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