Iraq: Round Two

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I don't think I could've picked much more of a misleading title, but the news is:

Turkey Attacks Iraq

'Dozens dead' in Turkish assault

The ground assault followed an air bombardment

Turkey's army says its ground offensive in northern Iraq has left five soldiers and dozens of Kurdish rebels dead.

Turkey said its ground forces had crossed the border to tackle rebels late on Thursday after an air and artillery bombardment.

PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the offensive is limited in scale and troops will return as soon as possible.

The UN secretary general and the US have urged Turkey to show restraint in the offensive.

A Turkish army statement said: "It has been understood from preliminary information that the terrorists have suffered heavy losses under long-range weapons fire and air strikes."

A Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) spokesman, Ahmad Danas, earlier said two Turkish troops were killed and eight wounded in fighting.

Neither report can be independently confirmed.

PKK fighters are known to use northern Iraq as a base


Mr Erdogan had told Turks on television: "The target, purpose, size and parameters of this operation are limited.

"Our armed forces will come back in the shortest time possible as soon as they achieve their objectives," he said, insisting that members of the PKK were the sole targets.

Correspondents say the aim is to isolate the organisation and prevent it using northern Iraq as a launch pad for attacks on Turkish soil.

Washington said it had been informed of the incursion in advance and that it had urged the Turks to limit their action to precise targeting of rebel Kurdish targets.

Reports from Turkey on the size of the assault force have varied from 3,000 to 10,000 soldiers.

But senior Iraqi Kurdish sources told the BBC the Turkish side had exaggerated the operation, which they believe to be "very, very limited", and in a remote border area.

'Unusual timing'

Turkey's military said the cross-border ground operation backed by the Air Force was launched at 1900 [1700 GMT on Thursday].
The protection of civilian life on both sides of the border remains the paramount concern
Ban Ki-moon
UN secretary general

Ground attack confusion


Turkey has carried out at least one ground incursion, as well as frequent air and artillery strikes, against suspected PKK targets in Iraq since parliament authorised the army to act in October 2007.

But this operation's timing is unusual as the mountainous border area is still covered with heavy snow, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul.

Nor have there been any major PKK attacks inside Turkey for some time, she adds.

More than 30,000 people have been killed since the PKK began fighting for a Kurdish homeland in south-eastern Turkey in 1984.

The US, the EU and Turkey consider the PKK to be a "terrorist" organisation.

President's call

Top Iraqi Kurdish and government officials are saying there has been no crossing at the Habur bridge, the only major land route into Iraq, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.


Kurdistan Democratic Party militants who control the area in question inside northern Iraq say they have not detected any Turkish forces near any of their own lines.

The office of Turkish President Abdullah Gul says the leader phoned his Iraqi counterpart, Jalal Talabani, about the operation on Thursday evening.

Mr Talabani's office confirmed a conversation had taken place during which Mr Gul invited him to visit Ankara officially, and also assured him that any Turkish operations were against the PKK, not against the Iraqi Kurds.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern about the situation.

"The protection of civilian life on both sides of the border remains the paramount concern," he said.

[Boyar Son]

They're there just for the Kurd rebels. If the US just manages to keep the Turks to the most minimal cross border attacks would help. But It is up to Iraq to deal with this as US should take no sides and make sure to keep everyone happy without alienating the other (even tho is is difficult).

The US should ask the PKK (assuming they have ties IMO) to get the rebels to stop. And show the situation is being handled with the support of Iraq's gov't (its 1st true test as a nation).

[Tribesman]

But It is up to Iraq to deal with this as US should take no sides and make sure to keep everyone happy without alienating the other (even tho is is difficult).

But surely the US should take sides , after all Turkey is its ally and Turkey is fighting terrorists in the War on Terror .
Perhaps America should join Turkey in invading Iraq to get rid of them terrorists .

[Boyar Son]

But surely the US should take sides , after all Turkey is its ally and Turkey is fighting terrorists in the War on Terror .
Perhaps America should join Turkey in invading Iraq to get rid of them terrorists .

Not unless the rebels attacked US or allied soldiers.

[spmetla]

The official Kurdish authority has avoided actual combat with the Turks shown in this incident on Thursday: http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/499817.html

Kurdish troops surround Turks in worst confrontation yet in Iraq
By LEILA FADEL and YASSEEN TAHA
McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD | Iraqi Kurdish troops on Thursday encircled Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq and threatened to open fire in the most serious standoff between the two nation’s forces since Turkey threatened late last year to go after guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party sheltering in Iraq.

The standoff began when Turkish troops in tanks and armored vehicles left one of five bases they’ve had in Iraq since 1997 and moved to control two main roads in Dahuk province, Iraqi officials said.

Kurdish soldiers from the peshmerga militia, which is loyal to the Kurdish Regional Government, moved to stop them. For an hour and a half, the two sides faced off before the Turkish soldiers retreated to their base, which is about 27 miles northeast of the city of Dahuk. The peshmerga surrounded the base and remained there late Thursday.

The Turkish troop movement was accompanied by artillery and airstrikes that targeted mountain areas held by rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is known by its initials as the PKK. A spokesman for the peshmerga, Jabar Yawar, said the shelling began at about 11 a.m. and continued past midnight. Two bridges were knocked out over the Great Zab River, he said.

“This is a matter of the sovereignty of Iraq and the unity of Iraq,” said Falah Bakir, the head of the foreign relations department of the regional government. “We hope that there will be no clashes — the Kurdistan Regional Government has done enough to show our goodwill to Turkey.”

Bakir said the regional government has tightened security at checkpoints, airports and hospitals to stop PKK movements, but that the Turkish military has continued its buildup. He called for the Iraqi central government and U.S. military to step in to stop what he called Turkey’s “abnormal movements.”

In Baghdad, Iraqi government officials held tense meetings with American civilian and military officials to stem the crisis in one of the only peaceful areas of Iraq.

“We have to do something,” said a senior Iraqi official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. “We cannot keep quiet and keep digging our heads in the sand.”

The growing tension between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan has wedged the United States between two allies. Turkey is a NATO member, and the Iraqi Kurds have been among the biggest supporters of the American presence in Iraq.

But the PKK, which has battled Turkey for decades for an autonomous Kurdish region in southern Turkey, also has broad support in northern Iraq, despite being labeled a terrorist organization by the United States.

There were no PKK casualties from Thursday’s Turkish shelling, said Ahmed Dennis, a spokesman for the group.

Meanwhile, violence hit elsewhere in Iraq. In Diyala province, 24 bodies were found in two graves.

The Iraqi army discovered 15 men buried under a thin layer of dirt about 10 miles north of Baqouba, the province’s capital, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. The corpses appeared to be about 10 days old. Each had been blindfolded, handcuffed and shot, Iraqi police said. Ten of the bodies were Iraqi soldiers.

The second grave also was near Baqouba; a police patrol uncovered the bodies of six men and three women.

Fighting between Shiite Muslim militias and the Iraqi army also broke out in Baqouba. An Iraqi army spokesman said the militias were affiliated with both Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the country’s most influential political party. It was unclear how many people had been killed in the fighting.

Damnable PKK will likely force the Turks against the Peshmerga and Iraqi Kurdistan. The US and Iraq are undoubtedly treading a thin line between the Kurds and Turkey, one is the 'success story' of the 2003 invasion and the other a long partner and ally that understandably needs to act against the PKK.

[Tribesman]

Not unless the rebels attacked US or allied soldiers.

they have attacked Turkish soldiers , Turkish soldiers are your allies .

[Boyar Son]

they have attacked Turkish soldiers , Turkish soldiers are your allies .

ooh didnt see that one comin'.

Tukey isnt part of op: iraqi freedom. So its best not to help them fight.