Turkey Sends Special Forces to Iraqi Border
By REUTERS
Filed at 12:36 p.m. ET
TUNCELI, Turkey (Reuters) - Four Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes
with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas on Tuesday and Turkey sent
hundreds of anti-terrorism special forces to the troubled region bordering
Iraq.
Military sources said the special forces would join up to 100,000 Turkish
troops near the border. Turkey has threatened an incursion into northern
Iraq to root out PKK rebels who use mountains there as a base for attacks
across the border.
It was not immediately clear whether the presence of the special forces in
Sirnak and Hakkari provinces in southeast Turkey was linked to an offensive
launched on Tuesday against PKK rebels following clashes, which left four
soldiers dead.
Troops, backed by tanks, attack helicopters and fighter jets have been on
standby for weeks in case
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_a
tlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org> NATO-member Turkey
authorizes an incursion.
Washington and Baghdad oppose a major cross-border offensive, fearing it
could destabilize northern Iraq and potentially threaten the wider region.
Prime Minister
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/recep_tayyip_e
rdogan/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Tayyip Erdogan, under intense domestic
pressure to act after some 50 soldiers were killed in recent weeks, has
pledged to send in troops into northern Iraq if PKK attacks from Iraq
continue.
NTV Web site reported Erdogan as telling a meeting of his AK Party on Monday
night "a cross-border operation is approaching." The meeting was closed to
the media.
"This business needs to happen before winter conditions worsen. If we don't
see concrete things from the other side an operation is near," he said.
WARPLANES
The death of the four soldiers in Sirnak province on Tuesday is likely to
increase pressure on the government to authorize an operation, despite
logistical difficulties as the weather closes in across the rugged
mountainous region.
Security sources said nine others were injured in the Sirnak clashes, which
lasted more than an hour.
President
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/abdullah_gul/i
ndex.html?inline=nyt-per> Abdullah Gul sent a message to armed forces chief
General Yasar Buyukanit, conveying his condolences to the soldiers'
families, the military and the Turkish public.
They were the first casualties of the conflict on Turkish territory since
November 7 when one soldier and three PKK guerrillas were killed in clashes.
Separately, the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq denied media
reports that Turkish attack helicopters and warplanes seeking PKK rebels had
bombed empty villages in the area on Tuesday morning.
Turkish broadcasters CNN Turk and NTV, citing Iraqi officials, reported that
nobody was killed in the bombings.
Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional
Government, said two Turkish warplanes had dropped flares as they flew over
a village near Zakho in northern Iraq on Monday.
An estimated 3,000 rebels use northern Iraq as a base for attacks in Turkey.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in
mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.
Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Ankara claims the right of self-defense under international law to attack
the PKK inside Iraqi territory and has staged limited cross-border
operations against the PKK in the past.
After meeting President
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/george_w_bush/
index.html?inline=nyt-per> George W. Bush last week to discuss the issue,
Erdogan said the army would go ahead with an incursion against the militants
in Iraq, but did not say when.
(Additional reporting by Sherko Raouf in Sulaimaniya, Daren Butler and
Thomas Grove in Istanbul; Writing by Paul de Bendern, Editing by Keith Weir)
.
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d=48132/stime=1195043398/nc1=3848614/nc2=5008828/nc3=4836041>
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