US soldiers indicted again on the murder of journalist in Baghdad

The Spanish Audiencia Nacional has ordered search and capture for three US soldiers: colonel Philip de Camp, captain Philip Wolford and sergeant Thomas Gibson for the murder of civilian journalists at Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on April 8th 2003. As you probably remember, a US tank shot against the balcony of this hotel while journalists were filming the entrance of US troops in the Iraqi capital, killing two: Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Telecinco cameraman José Couso. Three other journalists were injured.

Earlier the case was dismissed by this same tribunal but the Supreme Court rejected the dismissal and ordered to open it again.

The crime for which they have been indicted is to knowingly attacking civilian population causing the death of José Couso and act or threats of terror against civilians and journalists. The judge considers that there is enough evidence to believe that Col. de Camp was the person who gave order of shooting in spite of knowing perfectly well that it was a civilian zone and was occupied only by journalists. Wolford is accused for transmitting the criminal order and Gibson for materially executing the murder.

The search and capture order has been decided because of the lack of cooperation from the US authorities. According to EU treaties it has validity in all the Schengen space, which includes most of EU and therefore also most of NATO. Additionally, bilateral extradition agreements of Spain or EU may mean the suspects are subject to arrest and extradition in many other countries across the globe.

So far the USA has rejected to cooperate with the Spanish judiciary in this case but that was under G.W. Bush and the judges "hope" (in vain I forecast) that the new administration will be more cooperative.

Similarly the Iraqi government has not replied to the Spanish requests of cooperation for the examination of the place of the crime, however the tribunal has ordered to send inspectors on their own, as no legal authorization seems to be actually needed for such simple task.

The Spanish Penal Code qualifies undiscriminated or excessive attacks against civilians in war situations as a crime.

Source: La Haine[es]

96% of Iraq development fund vanish, while still in US hands

It's commonplace to say that the Iraqi administration is corrupt but what is not so frequently read or heard is that the Pentagon is corrupt also.

Judge yourself: 8.7 billion dollars (USD), out of a total of 9.1 billion of the Iraq Development Fund, for the reconstruction of Iraq and trusted for that purpose to the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) have vanished. The accountancy controls are so tenuous that even, after an audit, nobody knows where the money went to. In 2007 the Iraqi government demanded the money but, after the audit, it seems unclear if the missing billions can be tracked at all.

Meanwhile most of the country still lacks edible water and electricity, almost a decade after the invasion.

Source Atilio Boron's blog, originally from Clarín newspaper (both sources in Spanish).

The terrible effects of radioactivity in Fallujah, Iraq

There have been repeated informations coming from Iraq on the population of Fallujah being damaged by unknown malignant agents (possibly depleted uranium or other radioactive or biochemical agents) since the brutal and ill-reported battle of Fallujah in the year 2004 between invading forces from the USA and local Iraqi resistance militia.

Now, finally, an academic report has been made and published, confirming the atrocious situation.

Chris Busby et al., Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2010.

Abstract: There have been anecdotal reports of increases in birth defects and cancer in Fallujah, Iraq blamed on the use of novel weapons (possibly including depleted uranium) in heavy fighting which occurred in that town between US led forces and local elements in 2004. In Jan/Feb 2010 the authors organised a team of researchers who visited 711 houses in Fallujah, Iraq and obtained responses to a questionnaire in Arabic on cancer, birth defects and infant mortality. The total population in the resulting sample was 4,843 persons with and overall response rate was better than 60%. Relative Risks for cancer were age-standardised and compared to rates in the Middle East Cancer Registry (MECC, Garbiah Egypt) for 1999 and rates in Jordan 1996–2001. Between Jan 2005 and the survey end date there were 62 cases of cancer malignancy reported (RR = 4.22; CI: 2.8, 6.6; p < rr =" 12.6;" rr =" 38.5;" rr =" 9.24;CI:" rr =" 9.7;CI:" rr =" 7.4;CI:">80 deaths per 1,000 births. This may be compared with a rate of 19.8 in Egypt (RR = 4.2 p <>The mean birth sex-ratio in the recent 5-year cohort was anomalous. Normally the sex ratio in human populations is a constant with 1,050 boys born to 1,000 girls. This is disturbed if there is a genetic damage stress. The ratio of boys to 1,000 girls in the 0–4, 5–9, 10–14 and 15–19 age cohorts in the Fallujah sample were 860, 1,182, 1,108 and 1,010 respectively suggesting genetic damage to the 0–4 group (p <>

...

Conclusions

This study was intended to investigate the accuracy of the various reports which have been emerging from Fallujah regarding perceived increases in birth defects, infant deaths and cancer in the population and to examine samples from the area for the presence of mutagenic substances that may explain any results. We conclude that the results confirm the reported increases in cancer and infant mortality which are alarmingly high. The remarkable reduction in the sex ratio in the cohort born one year after the fighting in 2004 identifies that year as the time of the environmental contamination. In our opinion, the magnitude of these effects make it difficult to question them on the basis of any of the hypothetical shortcomings of the study type which we have considered although these must be borne in mind. However, owing to the various constraints placed by circumstance on the methods employed, we must emphasise that the results of this study should be interpreted with those aspects in mind. Finally, the results reported here do not throw any light upon the identity of the agent(s) causing the increased levels of illness and although we have drawn attention to the use of depleted uranium as one potential relevant exposure, there may be other possibilities and we see the current study as investigating the anecdotal evidence of increases in cancer and infant mortality in Fallujah.


There is an interesting article at David Rothscum Reports blog extending in the implications of these findings and some details that are not apparent on first sight, such as the infant mortality being still growing and not decreasing at all. If you feel you can read some of the first hand testimonies and watch some of the photos of the murdered children without fainting, you can see some in this other article at the same blog.

In turn Layla Anwar reported on this matter some days ago and denounced some details that are not apparent at all in the paper:

- the Iraqi authorities threatened all the participants of this survey with arrest and detention should they cooperate with the "terrorists" who were interviewing them. In other words, they were threatened under the anti-terrorism act.

- The U.S forces prohibited Dr.Busby for gathering any data, arguing that Falluja is an insurgency zone.

- The doctors from Falluja turned down the request to be aired live on the Ahmad Mansour program because they had received several death threats and feared for their lives.

It is important, I believe, to remind that Gaza Strip was subject to the same kind of criminal attack with depleted uranium and other niceties by Israel in the 2008-09 Christmas, with the complicit silence of the then President-elect Barack Obama (who has later also supported Israel in other criminal actions such as the terrorist attack against the Mavi Marmara). Some scattered information of similar radiation-caused damages is known but because of the savage siege that Israel imposes on the open-air prison it is impossible to know with any detail what is exactly happening.

Gaza, Iraq without electricity

For some perverse reason these news are not first page... nor any page in most media.

Gaza's last working generator at the only power plant went down today. The other two were destroyed by the Zionist armed cowards in the "Cast Lead" genocidal massacre last year (also called Shoah, Hebrew for Holocaust, by Olmert).

Right now the only sources of electricity in Gaza are two power lines from Israel (120 MW) and Egypt (12 MW), the generator used to produce 60 W. It's estimated that the electricity supply will go down to 60%.

Ironically, the occupants, are not allowing medical equipment in because it has generators that might be used to purposes other than medical.

Meanwhile, in another land destroyed by the new crusaders, Iraq, people is beginning to risk their lives to protest in the streets (going out is always a life risk in Iraq since the USA invaded and that was seven years ago) demanding something we usually take for granted: normalization of electricity supply. Right now power is rationed to a mere two hours per day but the electricity bills are as fat as always.

Iraqi government's death threats force suspension of conference

The State* Campaign against Occupation and for Sovereignty in Iraq (CEOSI for its Spanish acronym) decided yesterday, in the last minute, to suspend the International Conference of the Iraqi Political Resistance at Xixon (Gijón), Asturias, which had the support of the local and regional government. The reason? Death threats.

Death threats that anyone who has read about Iraq under the current collaborationist regime knows are very real.

Previously, economic and political threats by the government of Nouri Al-Maliki, which cooperates with both the USA and Iran, for a fascist fundamentalist agenda, had got its desired results in form of visa denial by the pathetic submissive government of Rodríguez Zapatero.

To this, the organizers responded by continuing with the conference and establishing videoconference links with Baghdad, Amman and Damascus in order for the banned speakers to be able to address the audience.

But the criminal Maliki was not satisfied and began issuing death threats against the organizers if the conference ever took place.

Such threats have been transmitted directly by the government of Nouri Al-Maliki to the Spanish government, demanding the cancellation of the conference and associated activities. It is believed that the execution of such death threats would correspond to paramilitary groups linked directly to Al Maliki's government.

Under such extreme pressure and the collaborationist innaction of the Spanish government, current president of the EU, the CEOSI decided to suspend the conference altogether, preserving only a visit to the Spanish Parliament next monday, where what happened will be explained again.

The conference intended to bring together and into public limelight, representatives of various human rights groups, civil society organizations and opposition parties and movements of Iraq, such as the Union for the People (communist party), the Southern Iraq Tribes' Council, the National and Islamic Patriotic Front of Iraq, the Association of Muslim Ulemas of Iraq, the Political Council of Iraqi Resistance, National Iraqi Founding Congress, as well as European and US solidarity organizations (see schedule for details).

Source: CEOSI (press release PDF) (in Spanish)

________________________________
*State means State of Spain, a common terminology among anti-imperialists within the multiethnic realm, where the term Spain has a quasi-fascist meaning that many reject.

Gradual mass murder of Iraqi intellectuals

I had a heartbeat when I subscribed to An Arab Woman Blues and in the long run and it seems it's right in the end. After all she seems to be a bright Iraqi woman with a lot of desire to denounce the atrocities of these two decades of war against her people.

In her last post Layla Anwar leaves aside the, understandable but rather unproductive, "I hate you all" that used to plague her blog and tells us a really atrocious story: the systematic assassination of Iraqi scientists and intellectuals since the US-UK-plus invasion of 2003.

Prior to 2003, there were 45'000 scientists in Iraq. Today there are virtually none left, they were either killed or are in exile or have been recuperated by the americans.

A partial source can be found at Uruknet but it only lists academics, not scientists working in the industry nor the army for instance. She claims that more than 3000 have been probably assassinated.

She denounces that in 2002 an implicit ultimatum was given to Iraqi scientists by the USA: join us or die. She argues that Israel and the CIA had as goal to eliminate all Iraqi scientists and that the farce of the search for the non-existent WMD in Iraq prior to the anyhow pre-determined invasion served the purpose of gathering detailed information on the scientific class in Iraq.

The worst wave of murders seems to have happened in 2005 under the Al-Jaafari government, whose secret services stormed the scientists' homes, kidnapped, tortured and killed them. The chief of these operations was Solagh Jaber, now known as Al Zubaidi, whom, along with all the other Shia rulers she accuses of working for Iran.

She also denounces what was obvious for a few like me: that Al Qaeda in Iraq (and elsewhere, I'd add) is funded, trained and armed by the USA and Iran (I'm not so sure about Iran but I'm certainly pretty sure about the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia).

One can wonder about the reality and complexity of the US-Israel-Iran ties but we cannot forget the Iran-Contra affair, already in the 1980s and the very fact that the US invasion has left Iraq totally in the hands of Iran.

But even more intriguing is why this declared obsession to destroy Iraq totally. After all it is just a middle sized country that had played as ally of the US-Israel-Saudia-NATO bloc for decades.

J. Baker did warn Tariq Aziz that Iraq will be taken to a pre-industrial age. Bremmer did say that bringing the population of Iraq to 5 to 6 millions was more than sufficient and IT IS HAPPENING. Madeleine Albright did say that killing 1Million Iraqi children was well worth it...but still, that question gnaws at me day and night...WHY ?

(...)

But still, why would anyone want to ERASE Iraq -- even after regime change and even after securing its riches. What is so special about Iraq ?

This is an obstinate question that refuses to leave me...I believe Saddam Hussein knew the answer and that is why he was murdered as well...

I'd say that there are three reasons:

One is obviously control of oil resources, which is a key piece in any imperial policy of the industrial era. Iraq not only controls a good deal of global oil resources but also the two wars against this country provided pretexts for the establishment of a chain of military basis and the de facto annexation of most of Arabia to the American Empire.

Another is destroying secularism and illustrated progress in the Arab World. This is a goal that can perfectly unite such fanatic countries as the USA, Israel, Saudia and Iran.

And finally, and tightly related to the previous one, it is the goal of destroying pan-Arabism, which was and probably still is the only and main adversary of Israel, as well as of Iran, Turkey, US neocolonial hegemony and even most Arab regimes, very specially Saudi Arabia, which are not interested in such kind of nationalism. Of course all or most Islamists are against Arab nationalism and Islamism has been used as spearhead to divide and destroy it.

Iraq was once believed to be the "Prussia of Arabia". Maybe it was just the "Savoy" but in any case it was a state that could potentially agglutinate the Arabs in a national project that would have challenged the imperial status quo. In fact the trap created by the USA by subtly offering territorial gains in Kuwait to Iraq in 1990, in apparent payment for their services in punishing Iran, actually evidenced that Iraq could agglutinate the Arab people and potentially go on a spree of blitzkriegs and alliances with support of most of the population to the very shores of the Jordan river in propitious conditions.

But Washington and the Zionists obviously outsmarted them and eventually got set to totally destroy this potential threat. Their goal is clear: they do not want anything that could threaten with the unification of Arab lands again, potentially destroying the US most beloved allies in the region: the racist neocrusader state of Israel and the fascist theocracy of Saudia.

In the end it's nothing but a continuation of the British imperial policy in the region and also of the old Roman adage "divide et vince": a pan-Arab state must be avoided at all costs.

Why? Because it would destroy Israel and Saudia, because it would control huge geostrategical resources, not just oil but also strategic routes like the Suez Canal-Red Sea gateway, and also because it might be a potential threat all through the Mediterranean Sea. So keeping the Arab World divided, weak, ignorant and fanatic is a key part of the Imperial plan designed by the Anglo-Saxon and Zionist entente, with the agreement of essentially all European powers, nowadays mere vassals of Washington, and of course nearly all Arab dictatorships, from Saudia to Morocco passing by Egypt and Algeria, even more submissive if that's possible.

That's the why.

Leaked video evidences how Reuters jounalists and civilians were killed by US troops in 2007

Directly from Wikileaks (direct link to video page).

Warning: as you can imagine, the video contains brutal violence with many people being killed at cold blood.

No words can comment it. I would just want to praise the work of Wikileaks, one of the very few remaining research journalism media and the courage of the anonymous source. Truth and freedom owe only to the brave like them.

The murder of two Reuters journalists and several civilians, plus to injured children, happened at New Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, in July 2007. The US authorities have refused to release the recordings and have always declared that it was an armed confrontation with insurgents.


Update: notice that if you try to watch this video directly at YouTube (right click on video and select "watch on YouTube", you are demanded to register with the pretext that the video is not suitable for minors. With the same pretext, it has been censored in many media, particularly in the USA.

According to Ciudad Futura, this practice is common at YouTube with videos that show the reality of demonized countries like Cuba or Venezuela. The actual reference however, which you can watch embedded at CubaInformación, in fact shows not just the reality of Cuba but specially, as counterpoint, the reality of a "democratic" country: Spain (and there's some real institutional violence, which may be why YouTube decides to hide it).

Official report on radioactivity and dioxin pollution in Iraq

The Iraqi government has issued a much worrying report on the radioactive and dioxin pollution generated by the two wars the country has suffered in the last decades. The use of low grade nuclear weapons (depleted uranium bombs) and the destruction of oil facilities are apparently the main causes of this horrifying landscape but the report fails to mention the dropping of a 5 kiloton nuke near Basra, as reported by Desert Storm veteran Jim Brown.

The generalized radioactive pollution is causing a major increase of birth defects. Another environmental problem of Iraq today is the drought and the low quality of the water that Turkey and Syria, which use the Euphrates for their own purposes, allow to flow.

Full story at The Guardian.

Al Qaeda's academy is US prision in Iraq

If anyone still had any doubts that Al Qaeda is nothing but the "Islamic" office of the CIA-Mossad complex, with the mission of stirring up the "Greter Middle East" and bringing the region to their knees, they must read/watch this.

Al Jazeera: US Iraq jail an "al-Qaeda school".

Witness Adel Jasim Mohammed, former prisoner at Camp Bucca:

In 2005, an extremist was sent to our camp. At first, Sunnis and Shias rejected his teachings. But we were told that he was imposed by the prison authority.

He stayed for a week and recruited 25 of the 34 detainees - they became extremists like him.

USA nuked Iraq in the first Gulf War

That is what veteran Jim Brown declared for the Italian state broadcaster RAI (video in English): that a "small" nuclear bomb of 5 kilotons was launched between Basra and the Iranian border.

According to Mr. Brown, founder of the veterans' organization Gulf Watch Intelligent Networking System, the US Military threw a pentration nuclear bomb (that explodes once underground) in that area east of Basra, probably with the intention of sending a strong message to the Iraqi President that they were determined to win the war by all means necessary.

It is the third nuclear weapon used ever in warfare apparently, after those thrown against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. The Basra bomb was smaller than those used against Japan, which had 16 and 22 kilotons respectively, and certainly much smaller than any intercontinental weapon whose destruction power is measured in megatons.

But still it was the use of a nuclear weapon, with painful consequences for the locals. Consequences that, as Brown denounces, are largely hidden by he widespread use of other radioactive weapons: depleted uranium ammunition. The problem of radioactivity effects in the Basra area has a long a story but it was so far believed it had been caused by depleted uranium ammo, not a full fledged nuclear bomb.

The Pentagon denies the claim.

Women's rights disaster in Iraq

Baathist Iraq was, at least largely, a secularist society. There were certainly the typical gender issues of all Muslim societies but the situation has worsened a lot since the 2003 US invasion of the country.

That is at least what knowledgeable women denounce in this article in Gara (in Spanish). The article begins talking about women suicide bombers but soon turns to the awful situation of Iraqi females in all the country. US citizen Farhana Ali says:

Iraqi women have been marginalized slowly but persistently. They were in the forefront of society with he former Iraqi government and we have deprived them from all opportunities. Those who have not run away have been victims of rape, torture, kidnappings... They are doubly victims.

Shameran Marugi, president of the Iraqi Women Comitee says:

The "right to live" is a slogan we have began promoting because the lifes of women in Iraq are threatened from all sides. Laws are not applied egalitarily and society despises women. Before the invasion a woman could live with normality if she followed - as happens everywhere else - to the laws of the state.

The new Iraqi constitution allows (art. 41) clerics to interpretate what is acceptable or not in the domain of rights and duties of the individual. This has formalized legally the factual harassment of women in all corners of society: at home they are victims of their fathers, husbands and even their own sons, while in the streets they are coerced to wear veil. The so-called "honor crimes", of which women are almost invariably the victims, have become widespread in all the country. A study details that 64% of Iraqi women have suffered mysogynistic agressions, while 74% claim that their daughters cannot go to school at all.

Guess this is the freedom that the invaders have brought. Meanwhile they continue doing business as usual with extremely machista fundamentalist regimes such as Saudi Arabia and many others, while progressive countries like Syria are marginalized. It makes no sense unless the goal is to get all the Middle East (in its widest sense) under the dark cloak of fundamentalist fascism.

Iraq: plunder and deceit

A couple of quite interesting Iraq-related stories today at BBC:

One is a former National Guard who deserted after being sent to Iraq and realizing that it wasn't what he had signed for: to defend his country in case of foreign invasion.

COREY GLASS, CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR/DESERTER

In 2002, I joined the Indiana National Guard. When I joined, I was told I would only be in combat if there were troops occupying the United States.

I signed up to defend people and do humanitarian work filling sandbags if there was a hurricane. I had no conception I would be deployed to fight on foreign shores.

But in 2005, I was deployed with my unit to Camp Anaconda near Balad, Iraq. My job in Iraq was in military intelligence.

Through this job I had access to a lot of information about what was happening on the ground in Iraq. I realised innocent people were being killed unjustly and I tried to quit the military while in Iraq. My commander told me I was stressed out and needed R&R, because I was doing a job I was not trained to do.

I went home on leave and said I was not coming back. I was told desertion is punishable by death. I was Absent Without Leave (AWOL) in America for eight months.

I searched the internet and found out about US war resisters in Canada. I arrived in Toronto two weeks later.

(continues)


The other is about a number of private contractors who got the money and run. And how Bush and gang are covering them up.

A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.

For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC's Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources.

A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.

The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.

While George Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted.

To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.

The president's Democrat opponents are keeping up the pressure over war profiteering in Iraq.

Henry Waxman who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said: "The money that's gone into waste, fraud and abuse under these contracts is just so outrageous, its egregious.

"It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history."

In the run-up to the invasion one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth seven billion that was given to Halliburton, a Texan company, which used to be run by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president.

Unusually only Halliburton got to bid - and won.

The search for the missing billions also led the programme to a house in Acton in West London where Hazem Shalaan lived until he was appointed to the new Iraqi government as minister of defence in 2004.

He and his associates siphoned an estimated $1.2 billion out of the ministry.

They bought old military equipment from Poland but claimed for top class weapons.

Meanwhile they diverted money into their own accounts.

Judge Radhi al-Radhi of Iraq's Commission for Public Integrity investigated.

He said: "I believe these people are criminals.

"They failed to rebuild the Ministry of Defence , and as a result the violence and the bloodshed went on and on - the murder of Iraqis and foreigners continues and they bear responsibility."

Mr Shalaan was sentenced to two jail terms but he fled the country.

He said he was innocent and that it was all a plot against him by pro-Iranian MPs in the government.

There is an Interpol arrest out for him but he is on the run - using a private jet to move around the globe.

He stills owns commercial properties in the Marble Arch area of London.

Notice that this story is probably illegal in the territory of the USA. So if you are there or have a US passport, please hand yourself to the police after reading this, as you are probably guilty of "aiding terrorists" just by knowing about this abuse. Enjoy your tropical vacations in Guantanamo.

Journalists in Baghdad were military target in 2003

A few days ago the Spanish Supreme Court acquitted (did you ever expect otherwise?) the US soldiers involved in the attack against the Hotel Palestine in Baghdad where international press was gathered at the time of US invasion, killing two cameramen: Reuters' Taras Prostyuk and Telecinco' José Couso.

The US soldiers were judged in absence, of course, because, while Washington is very keen of having foreign nationals extradited to the USA, it never extradites its own citizens abroad.

A former US spy, Sgt. Adrienne Kinne, has now revealed to Democracy Now! that the US Army had the hotel among its military targets, in spite of knowing well it was occupied by journalists:

... one thing that gave me grave concern was that as we identified phone numbers, we started to find more and more and more numbers that belonged not to any organizations affiliated with terrorism or with military—with militaries of Iraq or Afghanistan or elsewhere, but with humanitarian aid organizations, non-governmental organizations, who include the International Red Cross, Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, a whole host of humanitarian aid organizations. And it also included journalists.

...we were listening to journalists who were staying in the Palestine Hotel. And I remember that, specifically because during the buildup to Shock and Awe, which people in my unit were really disturbingly excited about, we were given a list of potential targets in Baghdad, and the Palestine Hotel was listed as a potential target.

...I thought there was something that was going terribly wrong.

The whole interview is available in video and audio format at th link above.

Turkish army in Southern Kurdistan (1)

I've been following as much as possible the latest Turkish invasion of Southern Kurdistan (Iraq). I say "as much as possible" because there seems to be a blanking of information not just by Turkey but also by the Kurdish autonomous government in Kirkuk. Journalists have been forbidden to head to the border to report on the invasion. That doesn't mean that Southern Kurdistan is happy about the Turkish intervention and in fact there was a standoff when Turkish troops stationed in Iraq (since 1991) attempted to leave their bases to join the operations: the Kurdish peshmergas surrounded them and eventually they had to turn back.

One thing that makes little sense to me is why these operations are being carried out in the midst of Winter. The PKK militias are deep in the mountains and these are true ice cubes in this time of the year, not the best scenario for the Turkish army to make fast gains, right?

It is worth mentioning that the Kurdish authorities at Kirkuk and the PKK do not really get along: historically regional and global powers have played the Kurds selectively against their rivals and the parties in power in Southern Kurdistan, supported by Turkey and the USA historically are not sympathetic of USSR and Syria backed PKK (PKK stands for Kurdistan Workers Party, though nowadays they are less Communist than they used to). Nevertheless the sister organization PJAK, that acts in Iran (Eastern Kurdistan) has support from the USA and is not listed by them as "terrorist organization".

Right now, the situation seems to be as follows: the PKK has shooted down a Turkish helicopter, while the Turks have destroyed 5 bridges in northern Iraq. Casualties' figures are confuse: the Turkish soldiers killed by the PKK may be between 15 and 47, depending who you believe; Turkey claims 112 PKK casualties but I suspect many are actually civilians (if the figure is not inflated).


One of the five bridges bombed by Turkey and map of Kurdistan (Kurdish ethnic majority).

Ref: Al Jazeera: 'Turkey ignores Iraq pull-out plea'.