Turkey admits 35 civilian deaths near Kurdish village..American drone style
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16352388
A senior Turkish official has acknowledged that 35 civilians were killed in an air strike near a Kurdish village close to the border with Iraq.
Turkey’s military said earlier it had targeted suspected Kurdish militants.
But the victims of Wednesday night’s attack are believed to have been villagers involved in smuggling cigarettes into Turkey from Iraq.
Governing party vice-president Huseyin Celik said an investigation was looking into possible intelligence failures.
The attack, on Wednesday night, took place near the village of Uludere in Sirnak province in south-eastern Turkey.
In a statement, Turkey’s general staff said the area attacked on Wednesday night was inside northern Iraq and had no civilian population. It added that the raid was launched following information that suspected militants were planning to attack Turkish security bases.
But Mr Celik was quoted by AFP news agency as saying later that “if it turns out to have been a mistake, a blunder, rest assured that this will not be covered up”.
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party condemned the air strike as a “massacre”, saying that all the victims were civilians aged between 16 and 20.
“Those killed were young people who made a living from smuggling. There were people studying for university exams among them,” said party leader Selahattin Demirtas.
Mr Celik added that some of the victims were sons of village guards who had helped Turkish troops in their fight against the rebels.
The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) urged the military to exercise greater care. While smuggling was against the law, “being killed in an aerial bombardment was not what they deserved”, a leading CHP official told the Hurriyet website.
Protesters angry at the deaths threw stones at police close to Taksim Square in Istanbul early on Thursday evening, Turkish agencies report.
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its not only the americans who get it wrong..i remember seeing this headline that the turks had killed 35 terrorists..now we find out they were common thieves..
401
“smuggling cigarettes into Turkey from Iraq.”…seems like killing over relgious fervor is now out of style, now it’s simply over the cigarette tax. In that case…the U.S. should nuke Mexico. That’s all we need…to give the IRS guns and drones.
That for anyone who says we’re not still cutting edge: American drone style, all the best terrorists and dictators just have to have it.
fuck yeah!