TURKEY/IRAQ: TURKISH AIR AND ARTILLERY STRIKES ON

S E C R E T ANKARA 002991 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/17/2022 TAGS: PREL MOPS TU IZ SUBJECT: TURKEY/IRAQ: TURKISH AIR AND ARTILLERY STRIKES ON PKK TARGETS IN ZAP REGION REF: STATE 2974 Classified By: Ambassador Ross Wilson for reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (S) Turkish warplanes attacked suspected PKK positions in the Zap region, in northern Iraq along the Turkey-Iraq border, between 1200 and 1400 hours local time on December ¶17. The Turkish General Staff (TGS) provided advance warning to the Ankara Coordination Center (ACC) located in the Office of Defense Cooperation in Ankara. ACC personnel promptly coordinated with relevant U.S. military authorities to ensure battlespace over northern Iraq was appropriately cleared. The precise number of Turkish aircraft participating in the attack is unknown, although we assess that fewer than twelve aircraft took part. ¶2. (S) Turkish Land Forces Command followed up the airstrikes with artillery fire in the same target area. As with the air and artillery strikes on December 16 (reftel),overcast conditions in the target area will make battle damage assessment (BDA) difficult. We expect that the Turkish government will make a public announcement about these strikes, as it did for the December 16 operation. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON