Iranian Kurds protest Turkey air raid

A group of Iranian Kurds have assembled in front of the Turkish Embassy in Tehran to protest the killing of Kurdish people in a airstrike by Turkish warplanes. The Iranian Kurds staged a protest rally in front of Ankara's Embassy in the capital of Tehran On Tuesday. On December 28, 2011, 35 people were killed when Turkish warplanes targeted Kurdish smugglers, thought to be members of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist group, in the village of Ortasu in the Turkey's southeastern province of Sirnak. Survivors and witnesses of the deadly incident ave questioned the military's claim that they had mistaken the civilians for PKK members, saying the attacks were intentional. Turkish government has rejected the allegation. Turkey's military command says it carried outthe airstrikes after a spy drone spotted a group moving toward its sensitive southeastern border in darkness last Wednesday night, in an area known to be used by PKK terrorists. The Turkish military began an operation in northern Iraq in October after 24 Turkish troops were killed in an attack by the PKK in the town of Cukurca near the Iraqi border. The army killed 36 PKK members in the Kazan Valley of Hakkari province. Over 45,000 people have lost their lives since the PKK launched an armed campaign against Ankara in Turkey's Kurdish majority southeast in 1984.