Kurdistan Turkey Conflict

Nur al-cubicle is a blogsite I have been reading for sometime. I cannot vouch for the reliability of the datasource, she claims to live in Florida and read Italian and French news sources. But he/she reported the following:

• However, Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani has rejected Ankara's conditions last Wednesday
• 600 Turkish commandos, supported by regular Army units and originating from the Turkish town of Cukurca, penetrated 3 kilometers into Kurdistan
• Another 200 regular troops occupied a hilltop in the Iraqi Kurd region of Sizeri
• The Turks have established security zones in the frontier provinces of Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari through 9 September

Again I cannot vouch for the data, but it is an interesting report none the less.

250,000 troops on the Kurdistan Border

WASHINGTON — American diplomats are quietly urging the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq to take steps that would help ease the alarm over the Turkish troops amassed on Iraq's border.
Ankara, Washington, and Baghdad all rushed yesterday to deny an Associated Press dispatch that the Turks had begun an invasion of northern Iraq in pursuit of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a group listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department and blamed by the Turks for suicide blasts in their capital this year.

An Iraqi official who spoke on condition of anonymity explained the delicate American diplomacy as follows: "The Americans want the Kurds to make their lives easier. They need the Kurdish government to show they are willing to do something to tackle terrorism in the north. They are asking for them to be creative. They don't expect them to go after every cell, but maybe alert Turkey of a threat, act on intelligence, arrest some people, make an effort."

The Rest @ New York Sun Times

Turkish troops cross into Northern Iraq

ANKARA: Amid high tension along the Turkish border with northern Iraq, thousands of Turkish troops were reported to have crossed into Iraq on Wednesday to pursue Kurdish guerrillas who shelter there.

But there was no immediate confirmation of the incursion by Turkish forces, which have been greatly reinforced along the border. American officials in Germany for the Group of 8 meeting said there had been "no new activity" in the area.

The Rest @ International Herlad Tribue

Turkey and Al Qaeda break the Relative Peace in Kurdistan

On Friday, June 1, the Turkish military announced that plainclothes troops operating inside of northern Iraq were harassed by Kurdish forces in the city of Sulaymaniyah and that, as a result, the acts would receive a response "at the highest level" (Journal of Turkish Weekly, June 4).

The previous day, Turkey's chief of staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, confirmed that the Turkish military was prepared for an offensive in northern Iraq if it received orders to deploy (Journal of Turkish Weekly, June 4).

In response to the continued escalation, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates again cautioned Turkey against conducting military operations in northern Iraq: "We hope there would not be a unilateral military action across the border into Iraq." Separately, Turkish newspapers have criticized the U.S. military's monitoring of Turkish troop formations on the border.

According to a May 27 report in Turkey's Milliyet, columnist Fikret Bila claimed that "U.S. military personnel in Zaho [Iraq] are monitoring the reconnaissance flights of the Turkish military planes in helicopters." Bila pointed out that there are "serious reports that the United States used drones to gather information along the border and that the drones crossed the border into Turkey from time to time."

Turkish concerned over the operations of the U.S. military demonstrate their growing apprehension over the threat from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the possibility of the Kurdistan Regional Government attaining control over the thriving oil city of Kirkuk.

A New Yazidi Militia has been formed, the Angle Peackock Brigade in defensive response to Killings by Sunni Muslim Groups in Northern Iraq, effectively establishing local governmental countrol with the treatened use of force.

Source: Terrorism Focus is a publication of the Jamestown Foundation.