Turkish warplanes and helicopters, supported by artillery barrages, bombed suspected Kurdish guerrilla hideouts in the remote, mountainous terrain of northern Iraq on Saturday.
The Turkish military said at least 35 Kurds and two Turkish soldiers died in fighting Saturday. A total of seven soldiers and at least 79 guerrillas have been killed in Iraq since Turkey launched a ground incursion late Thursday, according to the military.
The incursion is the first confirmed Turkish ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003. Baghdad criticized the offensive on Saturday, saying military force will not solve the Kurdish problem.
The rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States, has been fighting for autonomy in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey since 1984 . At least 40,000 people have been killed.
IRAQI JOINS U.S. ARMY TO SHOW HIS GRATITUDE
Safaa Wadi moved to Lewiston, Maine, after his life was threatened in his native Iraq while serving as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. He expects to soon head back to Iraq -- not as a civilian interpreter, but as an American soldier.
Wadi arrived in the United States in September with a special immigrant visa for Iraqi and Afghan interpreters. But with his savings nearly depleted and unable to land a decent job, Wadi enlisted in the Army.
"I want to serve this country because this country returned to me my life," Wadi said. "If I had stayed in Iraq, I'd be dead now."
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