by Mahmoud Abu Ghosh
An American Predator drone had reportedly fired the first bomb in an airstrike that killed 35 Kurdish civilians in Turkish-occupied northern Kurdistan last month.
In its main headline on Sunday, Turkey’s Aydinlik newspaper quoted “credible sources” as saying that the United States drone had launched the airstrike by targeting the victims.
The report added that Turkey’s F-16 fighter jets had arrived at the scene between 16 to 18 minutes later.
In December, Turkey said that its warplanes mistakenly targeted Kurdish smugglers, thought to be members of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) resistance group, in the village of Ortasu in the province of Sirnak close to the border with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
According to the report, the US drones that have been stationed in Turkey’s Incirlik Airbase are completely directed by US personnel in Nevada and Turkish Armed Forces have no control over them.
The US delivered four Predator drones to Turkey last year, as part of Washington’s gesture of support to the Turkish suppression of Kurdish resistance fighters.
More than 45,000 people, mostly ethnic Kurds, have lost their lives since the PKK first launched its armed campaign in 1984 to liberate northern Kurdistan from Turkish rule.
Turkey, the United States and the European Union all list the PKK as a terrorist organization.
