Turks fly to aid of Iraqi Kurds

Ankara (AFP) - The Turkish air force is supporting the Iraqi Kurdish campaign to drive Turkish Kurdish separatist guerrillas out of bases in northern Iraq, the Defence Minister, Nevzat Ayaz, said yesterday. He said the air force was 'supporting' the peshmerga fighters against guerrillas of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) but did not specify whether it had bombed PKK positions.

PKK separatists fled yesterday towards the border with Turkey as the peshmergas drove them from their headquarters in north-east Iraq, an Iraqi Kurdish spokesman said in Arbil, north Iraq.