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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In Tuesday's ground raid, Yawar said the Turkish forces crossed into an area near the border with Iran, about 75 miles north of the city of Irbil. Abdullah described the region as a deserted mountainous frontier area.
The Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, has battled for autonomy for southeastern Turkey for more than two decades and uses strongholds in northern Iraq for cross-border strikes.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit to Baghdad, said the U.S., Iraq and Turkey have a "common interest" in stopping Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, but she cautioned against action that could destabilize the region.
"This is a circumstance in which the U.S. has constantly counseled that we need an overall comprehensive approach to this problem and that no one should do anything that threatens to destabilize the north," she said.
Washington is trying to balance support for two key allies: the Turkish government and the Iraqi Kurds. The U.S. remains opposed to any major Turkish military operation into northern Iraq - which could disrupt one of the calmest areas of Iraq.
The White House said the U.S. is coordinating with Turkish and Iraqi forces on Turkey's cross-border conflict with Kurdish separatists. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the U.S. has asked Turkey to keep operations "targeted and limited."
Perino added that the PKK militants are a threat to Turkey, Iran and the U.S. and said the U.S. is sharing information with Iraq and Turkey, reports CBS News correspondent Peter Maer.
About 1,200 Turkish military monitors have operated in northern Iraq since 1996 with permission from local authorities. A tank battalion has been stationed at a former airport at the border town of Bamerni and a few other military outposts were scattered in the region. Ankara rotates the troops there.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the incursion "is not acceptable and will lead to complicated problems."
"Iraq understands the threat the PKK represents, one that endangers Turkish security. But Iraq rejects any Turkish interference in Iraq," he said, adding that the Iraqi government was given no warning about the incursion.
Asked about a reported clash between the Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels inside Iraq, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said: "From now on, whatever is necessary in the struggle against terrorism, it is being done."
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said his country had no intention of violating Iraq's territorial integrity or harming civilians, "but the PKK terrorist organization's camps there are terrorist camps, they are our enemy."
"They threaten our national unity and we are using our rights stemming from international laws to defend ourselves against this threat," Erdogan said.
"We are taking all means that are available to us - be they political, diplomatic, military, social or economic - and are using them," he said. "At the moment the army is doing whatever is necessary. Our armed forces will continue to do whatever is necessary."
Abdullah, the spokesman for the regional Kurdish government, was critical of the operation.
"We are against any Turkish incursion inside Iraqi territory. This is regarded as a violation of Iraq's sovereignty," he said. "We don't expect that problems between Turkey and the PKK rebels will be solved by a military operation."
In Sunday's airstrikes, as many as 50 fighter jets were involved in the attack, the biggest against the PKK in years. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. The rebels said two civilians and five rebels died.
Iraq's parliament on Monday condemned the airstrike, calling it an "outrageous" violation of Iraq's sovereignty. Turkey said Sunday's attack used U.S. intelligence and was carried out with tacit American approval.
The incursion began hours before Rice arrived in Kirkuk, a city that Iraq's Kurds call their Jerusalem in the oil-rich territory claimed by many. She met members of a civilian-military reconstruction unit and provincial politicians before flying to Baghdad.
Sunni Arabs ended a yearlong political boycott earlier this month in Kirkuk - the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields - under a deal that sets aside government posts for Arabs. It was the biggest step yet toward unity before a referendum on the area's future.
Kirkuk is an especially coveted city for both the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government in Baghdad and the Kurdish one in Irbil. Kurds want to incorporate it into their self-rule area, but the idea has met stiff resistance from Arabs and a constitutionally required referendum on the issue was delayed to next year.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 76 Commentshttp://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...
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.
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.
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.
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."
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
How does the preamble of the United States Constitution begin? First three words...
"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.
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.
talk2chief,
Be sure to alternate boots now and then, so that your tongue experiences a flavor which is both "fair" AND "balanced".
Like I said... your nothing but a Tokyo Rose.
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