Turkish Airstrikes Kill 35 Along Smuggling Route
Turkish airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the Kurdish border region with Iraq on Thursday in what the army said was an operation aimed at separatist fighters. Local villagers said the dead were instead young diesel smugglers who had been misidentified by the Turkish military.
The strikes occurred in northern Iraq near the Turkish town of Uludere along a rugged route used both by smugglers to transport goods like diesel and cigarettes by mules between the countries and by militants from the separatist Kurdish Workers’ Party, or the P.K.K., who launch cross-border attacks into Turkey.