-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 9, 2007 2:09:17 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Massing on Iraq's Northern Border, As Many Turkish Troops
as US Troops in Iraq
Turkey has 140,000 troops on Iraq border: Iraq
Mon Jul 9, 2007 8:39AM EDT
By Ahmed Rasheed
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL0922793720070709?
src=070907_1206_TOPSTORY_civil_war_threats
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Turkish army has 140,000 soldiers along its
border with northern Iraq as part of a "great mobilization", Iraqi
Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Monday.
Turkey's armed forces have urged its government to allow an
incursion into neighboring, mainly Kurdish, northern Iraq to crush
up to 4,000 Turkish Kurdish militants who use the region as a base
to attack security and civilian targets inside Turkey.
Rumors of a possible Turkish incursion have rattled financial
markets and have drawn warnings from the United States, Ankara's
NATO ally, to stay out of Iraq.
"There is a great mobilization on Iraq's northern international
border that the security services and intelligence (agencies)
estimate at more than 140,000 military personnel with all sorts of
equipment," Zebari told a news conference.
Asked to confirm the number, Zebari, who is himself a Kurd, said it
was 140,000.
While Turkey has not said how many troops had been sent to the
border, it had been believed to be in the tens of thousands.
Tensions have soared along the mountainous border region following
an upsurge in attacks across Turkey that Ankara has blamed on
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
IRAQ WANTS DIALOGUE
Zebari said Iraq wanted dialogue to resolve the issue.
"The government's stance on this is clear. We are against any
interference or breach of Iraqi sovereignty from neighboring
states," Zebari said.
"We understand Turkey's legitimate fears over the activities of the
Workers Party and view this issue as negotiable. There is a joint
Iraqi, American and Turkish security committee and it is the
appropriate body to solve all the issues and problems between the
two countries. We are ready to host the activities of this
committee in Baghdad."
Turkey's military is known to sometimes shell PKK targets inside
Iraq, as well as stage small raids across the border.
Washington, while classing the PKK as a terrorist group, fears any
major operation by Turkey in northern Iraq could anger Iraqi
Kurdish allies and stoke wider conflict in a relatively peaceful
region of the war-torn country.
Iraq has previously said its security forces were badly stretched
tackling unrelenting violence elsewhere, and did not have spare
troops to send to the border region.
Turkey's centre-right government is under mounting public pressure
to take tough action as July 22 parliamentary elections loom.
Nationalist parties are expected to do well in the polls.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people
since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland
in southeast Turkey in 1984.
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