World

Iraq Attacks Spook Turkey

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 3, 1999 / 7:36 AM EST / CBS

U.S. warplanes roared into southern Turkish skies again Wednesday for routine patrols of Iraq's northern no-fly zone similar to those that have led to regular strikes on Iraqi military sites.

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said he feared U.S. policy towards Baghdad could lead to creation of an independent Kurdish state in Iraq's mountainous north -- something Ankara fears could fuel Kurdish insurgency on its own soil.

U.S. jets attacked five air defense sites in northern Iraq on Tuesday, returning safely to the complex of huts and hangars near the Turkish city of Adana.

While Turkey hosts the planes of its NATO ally, it has increasingly expressed concern that the actions of the guests might work against its own interests.

Adding to the tensions, the U.S. base at Incirlik came under threat of an Iraqi missile attack last week, temporarily raising concerns that Baghdad could target sites within Turkey.

The U.S.-British patrolled northern no-fly zone was set up ostensibly to protect a Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq from attack by President Saddam Hussein's forces.

But Ecevit has expressed increasing skepticism about the operations and U.S. policy in general since taking office last month.

"The United States may not want to establish a Kurdish state, but events are approaching that point," Anatolian news agency quoted him as telling state television late on Tuesday.

"It is clear the stance the United States has begun to follow will open the way for the division of Iraq and that Turkey will suffer the most from that."

Ankara fears such a state on its borders could only aid the insurgency it has battled in its Kurdish-populated southeast for 14 years and bolster the Kurdish nationalism that drives fugitive guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The conflict with Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which uses the Kurdish enclave of northern Iraq as a staging post for attacks on Turkey, has cost more than 29,000 lives.

Turkey is also concerned that the regular bombardment of Iraqi sites exceeds the U.S. planes' right to self-defense.

Defense Minister Hikmet Sami Turk on Tuesday said that Turkey was in talks with U.S. officials on the rules of engagement for the aircraft, which were recently expanded to include targets that do not pose an immediate danger to U.S. aircraft.