Turkey army launches land offensive into Iraq
Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:16am EST
By Paul de Bendern
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's military said on Friday it had launched a cross-border land offensive backed by fighter jets into northern Iraq on Thursday evening to hunt down Kurdish PKK guerrillas.
Turkish television reported, without citing sources, that 10,000 troops had entered Iraqi territory. NTV said troops had moved 10 km (6 miles) inside Iraq.
This report shows that the Kurds take incursions seriously:
Kurdish troops surround Turks in worst confrontation yet in Iraq
By Leila Fadel and Yasseen Taha McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008
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 Dohuk 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 Dohuk. The peshmerga surrounded the base and remained there late Thursday.
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1 comment:
Bush has made the US impotent politically and militarily. That's why he couldn't stop the Turkish invasion of Iraq and has done nothing about the burning of our embassy in Serbia.
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