KIRKUK, Iraq, Dec. 18, 2007
Turkish Troops Enter Northern Iraq
Hundreds Of Troops Cross Border For Overnight Operation; Secretary Rice Makes Surprise Visit
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Condoleezza Rice's visit to Kirkuk, in the north of Iraq, comes amidst rising border tensions between Turkey and Kurdish rebels within Iraq. The same day Rice made an unannounced visit, Turkish troops reportedly crossed the Northern Iraq border. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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A villager walks through rubble in Qlatooka, a village near Iraq's border with Turkey on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007. Turkish war planes bombed Kurdish rebel targets as far as 60 miles inside northern Iraq for three hours early Sunday, in the largest aerial attack against the outlawed separatist group in recent years. (AP)
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Photo Essay Turkey-Iraq Tensions Nation mulls cross-border military incursion into northern Iraq to chase Kurdish rebels.
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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- Iraq Condemns Turkish Airstrikes
The raid came two days after Turkey carried out airstrikes against rebel positions in the Iraqi Kurdish region of northern Iraq, and Turkey claimed it inflicted a "heavy blow" to the rebels.
The incursion of about 300 troops - the first confirmed Turkish ground operation inside Iraq since the U.S. invasion of Iraq - did not represent a large-scale push that some feared could destabilize a relatively calm part of Iraq. In November, the Turkish military reportedly has massed 100,000 troops along the border.
Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the regional Kurdistan government, told The Associated Press that the Turkish troops withdrew about 15 hours after entering Iraq about 3 a.m.
Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for Kurdistan's Peshmerga security forces in Irbil, Iraq, told the AP that "today's Turkish military operation was a limited one, and the troops withdrew from Iraqi territory."
Late Tuesday, Turkey's military said it had inflicted heavy losses on a separatist Kurdish rebel group in airstrikes over the weekend and in a "small-scale" incursion by ground forces.
In a statement posted on its Web site, the military said ground forces based close to the border with Iraq, crossed "a few kilometers" into northern Iraq after spotting a group of rebels trying to infiltrate into Turkey. "A heavy blow was dealt to the group," it said.
The Iraqi government had called the incursion an unacceptable action that would lead to "complicated problems."
The incursion came two days after Turkey carried out airstrikes against rebel positions in northern Iraqi on Sunday.
U.S. military commanders in Iraq didn't know Turkey was sending warplanes to bomb in northern Iraq until the planes had already crossed the border, the AP has learned.
Americans have been providing Turkey with intelligence to go after Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. And a "coordination center" has been set up in Ankara so Turks, Iraqis and Americans can share information, two officials said Tuesday.
But commanders and diplomats in Baghdad were angered when they were told of Sunday's attack after it was already under way, defense and diplomatic officials said in Washington and Baghdad.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
In Other Developments:
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 76 Comments
- Actually, Barzani wouldn''t even go to Baghdad to see Rice in protest over the Turkish raids.
- Reply to this comment
- Looks like Rice is none too popular with the Kurds...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071218/pl_afp/iraqunrestusbarzanirice
Barzani wouldn''t even go to Iraq to see Rice... though you might not know it from CBS... - Reply to this comment
- This is a betrayal by the US to the Kurds. The Kurds were close allies in Iraq from the start.
Each time something like this happens, one would think Bush can''t do anything more wrong and more bigger, but he does.
Every time that boy tries to show he''s not all hat, the wind blows it off his head. - Reply to this comment
- I notice that Turkey didn''t go after the Kurd rebels who have their training camps in Northern Iran.
- Reply to this comment
- FeelFree1:
Go and wipe the pschitt off your @ss with your left hand, Moslem boy.
Even better, put your right hand over mouth to stop any more verbal diarrhea from spurting out. - Reply to this comment
michaelt302,
Re: "FeelFree1 is a self-declared Muslim and a Jihadist. He has admitted many times that he hates America and supports Islamic terrorism. He supports Sharia law and the bringing down the US government by force. He supports suicide bombings and car bombings. He has stated that is %u201Cacceptable to kill civilians%u201D in pursuit of Jihad. FeelFree1 is also currently living in the Middle East and is directly involved with al-Qaeda, and is under their direction."
Really Michael? Can you cite anything from any of my comments in support of any of these claims?
You are not lying, are you Michael?
Do you also go by ''singinmichael''?
Bush dead-enders are all but throwing in the towel now. The best they can hope for is to smear their adversaries.
Pittiful.- Reply to this comment
Related:
"250 former Iraq detainees claim torture in new US lawsuit"
"WASHINGTON (AFP) %u2014 More than 250 people once held in Iraqi prisons, including the notorious Abu Ghraib, have filed suit against a US military contractor for their alleged torture, attorneys said Tuesday."
"The Center for Constitutional Rights said a lawsuit was filed in US federal court on Monday asking for millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages against CACI International Inc. of Arlington, Virginia."
"The complaint, filed in the name 256 former detainees who were released without ever being charged with a crime, alleges that CACI interrogators who were sent to Iraqi prisons directed and engaged in torture between 2003-2004."
"The lawsuit charges that the detainees were repeatedly beaten, sodomized, threatened with rape, kept naked in their cells, subjected to electric shock and attacked by unmuzzled dogs, among other humiliations."- Reply to this comment
- Turkey is truly a filthy genocidal nation who loves to cause chaos everywhere they can. Once again they are now killing the Kurds. The Kurds are heavily oppressed and discriminated in Turkey, but that is not good for the Turks. NOW they want to destroy the Kurds in Kurdistan. I support The PKK and the Peshmerga of Kurdistan. Turkey is an oppressive nation who now see that Kurdish Iraq is very stable and now see that the rest of Iraq is settling down, so they must go there and spread their hate to oppress the people of Kurdistan(Iraq). Give the Kurds back their land, give back Kurdistan NOW!!!
- Reply to this comment
- FeelFree1
I suggest you read the constitution. I think there is something in the document about freedom of speech!
Which means I don''t have to like what you say, and you don''t have to like what I say, but we have the RIGHT to say it. Put that in your crack pipe and smoke it Tokyo Rose! - Reply to this comment
talk2chief,
I suggest that you read more than the first three words of the U.S. Constitution, and have someone explain it to you.
If you can''t live by this contract, then find another home. You are not welcome here.- Reply to this comment
- Condi Mushroom Cloud went to North Iraq - The regional President refused to meet with her.. Example of growing problems in Iraq.
- Reply to this comment
- FeelFree1
With that response your just proving to the world that your nothing more than a dumb arse. Or, you understood where I was going, which would makes you a smart arse.
Either way... you prove my point, your nothing but a Tokyo Rose! - Reply to this comment
talk2chief,
Re: "EVERYONE who serves in the US military is a VOLUNTEER!"
Tell that to our involuntarilty extended military members, and to the ones that are dead and maimed as a result of a fraud-based criminal aggression of choice.- Reply to this comment
talk2chief,
Re: "How does the preamble of the United States Constitution begin? First three words..."
I''m pretty sure it''s not WE THE FASCISTS, or WE THE ZIONISTS...
Do your own research, champ.- Reply to this comment
- FeelFree1
By the way, nobody in the armed forces of the United State is dragged off a farm. EVERYONE who serves in the US military is a VOLUNTEER! - Reply to this comment
- FeelFree1
How does the preamble of the United States Constitution begin? First three words... - Reply to this comment
"Why of course the people don''t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don''t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."- Hermann Goering at his Nuremburg trial.
Your time is about up, champ.- Reply to this comment
- FeelFree1
Your more like Joseph Goebbels... "Tell a big lie and more people will believe it."
Go back to school... and pay attention in American History. - Reply to this comment
talk2chief,
Be sure to alternate boots now and then, so that your tongue experiences a flavor which is both "fair" AND "balanced".- Reply to this comment
- FeelFree1
Like I said... your nothing but a Tokyo Rose. - Reply to this comment
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