Further Turkish military movement along Iraq border

(14 Nov 2007) SHOTLIST 1. Various of tanks travelling down highway near northern Iraqi border 2. Wide of tanks and military trucks on highway 3. Zoom out of soldiers in tank to wide of tank on highway 4. Pan of soldiers in tank 5. Various of tanks on highway 6. Wide of military trucks on highway 7. Various of helicopters flying overhead 8. Wide of military aircraft flying overhead 9. Various of tanks on road near mountains STORYLINE Military activity continued in an area near the Turkish-Northern Iraqi border on Wednesday, just one day after Kurdish rebels killed four Turkish soldiers in a clash in south-eastern Turkey, officials said. Pictures filmed by an AP Television crew showed tanks and military trucks travelling on a highway near the border town of Cizre. The footage also showed helicopters flying over mountains in the area. Tuesday's clash between Kurdish Worker's Party, also known as PKK, rebels and Turkish soldiers in Mountain Gabar near the south-eastern city of Sirnak, left nine soldiers wounded, the regional governor's office said. The dead soldiers included a lieutenant and three privates, the governor's office in Sirnak said. Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told a Kuwaiti newspaper, on Wednesday, that tensions between Iraq and Turkey have subsided and relations are improving. In an interview with the the daily Alrai newspaper Talabani said that the crisis with Turkey had passed - even as Turkish troops remain massed at the Iraqi borders over the presence of rebel fighters in the Iraqi Kurdish region's mountainous hinterland. Talabani's remarks come just one day after Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq, according to Iraqi officials, in what would be the first air strike since border tensions escalated in recent months. Turkish media reported warplanes were involved in the dawn raid. A spokesman for the Kurdish regional administration, denied the reports but said two Turkish warplanes dropped flares on Monday in the mountains near Zakhu. An Iraqi Army officer who supervises border guards, said the airstrikes occurred before dawn on abandoned villages northeast of Zakhu, an Iraqi Kurdish town near the border with Turkey. There were no casualties, he said. The airstrike would have been the first major Turkish action against Kurdish rebels since Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met US President George W. Bush in Washington earlier this month. The United States and Iraq have pressured Turkey to avoid a large-scale attack on rebel bases in northern Iraq, fearing such an operation would destabilise what has been the calmest region in the country. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told party members late on Monday that the date of an anticipated cross-border operation was "nearing," a ruling party legislator said on Tuesday. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...