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THE STANS
Turkish army warns over 'red lines' in Kurdish peace talks
by Staff Writers
Istanbul (AFP) Aug 31, 2014


Iraqi forces break jihadist siege of Amerli
Baghdad (AFP) Aug 31, 2014 - Iraqi forces broke through to the jihadist-besieged town of Amerli Sunday, where thousands of people have been trapped for more than two months with dwindling food and water, officials said.

"Our forces entered Amerli and broke the siege," Iraqi security spokesman Lieutenant General Qassem Atta told AFP.

Talib al-Bayati, an official responsible for a nearby area, also said that the siege of the Turkmen Shiite-majority town has been broken, as did Nihad al-Bayati, who had been fighting to defend the town against the jihadists.

Iraqi security forces, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish peshmerga fighters all took part in the operation, which was launched on Saturday after days of preparations in which the various forces deployed for the assault and Iraqi aircraft carried out strikes against militants.

Thousands of people had been trapped in Amerli since June, when jihadist-led militants launched a major offensive that overran chunks of five Iraqi provinces, sweeping security forces aside.

While forces from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region have previously made gains in the north with backing from American air strikes, the Amerli operation was the first major offensive success for the federal government since the conflict began.

Residents of Amerli faced major shortages of food and water, and were in danger both because of their Shiite faith, which jihadists consider heresy, and their resistance to the militants, which has drawn harsh retribution elsewhere.

The United States announced that it carried out three air strikes in the Amerli area, the first time its more than three-week air campaign against jihadists in Iraq has been expanded outside the north.

And aircraft from the United States, Australia, France and the United Kingdom also dropped humanitarian aid to the town, the Pentagon announced on Saturday.

Western aid for Amerli was slow in coming, however, with the burden of flying supplies and carrying out strikes in the area largely falling to Iraq's fledging air forces.

Pressure had been mounting from both inside and outside the country for an effort to help Amerli, with the UN envoy to Iraq warning that people there faced a "possible massacre" by the besieging militants.

Turkey's army chief has warned that the army will do whatever is necessary if its "red lines" are not respected in peace talks with Kurdish rebels.

His comments came amid intensified efforts by the government to restart stalled peace talks with the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which launched an insurgency seeking self-rule in the southeast in 1984.

"We have made clear that we will do and say whatever necessary if our red lines have been crossed..." Turkish armed forces chief of staff Necdet Ozel said late Saturday, adding that these included "territorial integrity".

"We have been fighting this struggle for 30 years," he added during a reception hosted by newly inaugurated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Cankaya presidential palace for Victory Day, a national holiday marking the final battle in the Turkish War of Independence.

Erdogan launched clandestine peace talks with the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan in 2012 to end a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives over three decades. The military were not included in these talks.

The rebels declared a ceasefire in March 2013, but peace talks stalled in September after the insurgents said they were suspending their retreat from Turkish soil in protest against Ankara's failure to move on reforms.

Although hostilities have largely died down, sporadic violence has erupted in the Kurdish-majority southeast.

Ankara is now seeking to restart peace talks with the PKK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

The newly-formed government is expected to present a road map in September.

Ozel however lamented that the government had not yet shared the road map for the peace talks with the army, saying they were only following the developments through the "media."

"The government has a policy and it is pursuing it, but we don't know anything about their road map. We are not involved in it. Wish they had asked for our opinion," he said.

In a speech Thursday after his inauguration, Erdogan vowed to advance the peace process, saying it was his "priority".

Ocalan said earlier this month that Turkey was on the verge of "historic developments" and that the conflict was "coming to an end".

The parliament has already passed a reform bill aimed at easing the negotiating process with the Kurds.

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Islamabad (AFP) Aug 28, 2014
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