Erdogan Charges US With Backing ‘Terrorists' In Iraq

Turkish president accused the United States of siding with ‘terrorists,’ after Ankara said outlawed Kurdish militants had executed 13 Turks in Iraq

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused the United States of siding with “terrorists,” after Ankara said outlawed Kurdish militants had executed 13 Turks in Iraq.

“The statement made by the United States is a farce. You said you did not support terrorists, when in fact you are on their side and behind them,” Erdogan said in his first public comments on the incident.

Turkey on Sunday accused Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels of executing 13 Turkish nationals, mainly members of the security forces, whom they had held captive in northern Iraq.

The alleged killings threaten to heighten tensions between Ankara and Baghdad, as well as with Washington, which backs groups tied to the PKK in Syria.

Ankara has long accused the Iraqi government of being too tolerant of the PKK, listed as a terror group by Turkey and much of the international community.

The PKK has for decades used Iraq’s mountainous areas as a springboard for its insurgency against the Turkish state.

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said Turkish soldiers had discovered 13 bodies in a cave in the Gara region of northern Iraq, where Ankara launched an operation against the PKK on Wednesday.