Turkish Jets Launch Strikes against Kurds in Iraq

Turkish fighter jets launched their most fierce attack on Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq on Wednesday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out peace talks with the Kurdish rebel organization PKK. The air force has been attacking Kurdish positions in Iraq for a week. The Kurds are being blamed for a series of lethal assaults on Turkish soldiers and police. Talk of a peace process between the Erdogan government and PKK was virtually silenced as Kurds were heard to say talks would be meaningless and the president said peace talks had become “impossible.” The PKK represent the Kurdish minority that has sought independence since 1984, often finding itself in the middle of violence that has killed 40,000 people in 31 years. The United States lists the PKK as a terrorist organization but allies with it in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).