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| Europe |
| Turkey organizing troops, tanks to fight the PKK |
| 2006-04-22 |
| Turkey has sent thousands of soldiers backed by tanks to its overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast and the Iraqi border following stepped-up attacks by Turkish Kurdish guerrillas, officials and reports said Friday. Fighting between soldiers and the guerrillas, who are based in northern Iraq, often intensifies in the spring, when the snows melt, clearing mountain passes along the border. Turkey already has some 2,000 soldiers, backed by tanks in northern Iraq to guard against cross border attacks. But a military officer and an intelligence officer said that force was not being increased and Turkey was not considering any incursion into the neighboring country. The Aksam newspaper reported Friday that Turkey has moved some 10,000 soldiers to the border regions, increasing its troop strength to some 50,000. The officers, both speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, confirmed the deployment but would not say how many troops were involved. In the past few months, some 40 rebels, 14 soldiers and four police officers have been killed in clashes in southeastern Turkey. Some 37,000 people have been killed since rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, took up arms in 1984. Turkey has called on the United States to crack down on rebel bases in northern Iraq, but U.S. commanders, struggling to battle Iraqi insurgents elsewhere, have been extremely reticent to fight the rebels who are based in the remote mountain areas — one of the few stable parts of the country. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #8 Check out Michael Totten's recent series for a great description of the differences between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkish Kurdistan. http://www.michaeltotten.com/ |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2006-04-22 16:32 |
| #7 A vicious skirmish with the US will help the Turks in their EU ambitions. /Grom |
| Posted by: 6 2006-04-22 13:01 |
| #6 The Kurds are sitting on some oil wells in Iraq The difference now is that they aren't going to just be taking those oil fields from the Kurds - but from the country of Iraq, with a trained army and the support of the US. No matter how they feel about their Kurd countrymen, the Iraq Shia and Sunni won't will be willing to just give up those oil fields any more than the Iraq Kurds will. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-04-22 10:08 |
| #5 The people in charge in Turkey right now are and have been doing the most mind boggling, stupid things. The government functions like teens working out a basment garage with "big ideas" and a half-assed plan to make them millions - millions don't ya see? Time to for the Turks to put some adults in charge. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-04-22 10:00 |
| #4 The Kurds are sitting on some oil wells in Iraq |
| Posted by: Croling Spomp1127 2006-04-22 09:37 |
| #3 During the years that the Northern no fly zone operated in Iraq, American planes protecting the Kurds from Saddam would be sometimes recalled back to their bases in Turkey because of Turkish operations. The pilots would see fully armed Turkish planes take off and return with their hard points empty. Back on patrol, the pilots would see newly bombed out Kurdish villages. |
| Posted by: john 2006-04-22 09:22 |
| #2 Hopefully then we will call in air strikes on the Turks. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-04-22 09:07 |
| #1 They will cross the border into Iraq... |
| Posted by: Glemp Glique4136 2006-04-22 08:08 |