Upsurge in Kurdish attacks raises pressure on Turkish prime minister to order Iraq invasion

[IndianaGreen]

Source: The Guardian

Upsurge in Kurdish attacks raises pressure on Turkish prime minister to order Iraq invasion

· Bomb brings death toll of soldiers in one day to 15
· Erdogan caught between public opinion and US

Ian Traynor, Europe editor
Tuesday October 9, 2007
The Guardian

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came under intense pressure last night to order an invasion of northern Iraq following the deadliest attacks for over a decade on the Turkish military and civilians by separatist Kurdish guerrillas.
Mr Erdogan, who has resisted demands from the Turkish armed forces for the past six months for a green light to cross the border into Iraqi Kurdistan, where the guerrillas are based, called an emergency meeting of national security chiefs to ponder their options in the crisis, a session that some said was tantamount to a war council.

A Turkish incursion is fiercely opposed by Washington since it would immensely complicate the US campaign in Iraq and destabilise the only part of Iraq that functions, the Kurdish-controlled north.

Two Turkish soldiers were killed yesterday in booby trap explosions laid by guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) - fighters classified as terrorists by Ankara, Washington and the European Union. Those casualties followed the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers in the south-east on Sunday when PKK forces outgunned a Turkish unit of 18 men without sustaining any casualties, according to the Kurds.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2186530,00.html

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Turkey'a patience has worn thin about cross border raids by Kurdish terrorist. It is long overdue for Turkey to go into Northern Iraq in search of people responsible for so many deaths and wounded.

[TomInTib]

1. S**t, meet fan.

Goodness.

D.C.'s worst nightmare.

They better get Condi and Bigfoot(Hughes) over there muy pronto.

[Hydra]

2. What a mess

and the Kurds just got their oil industry moving without Baghdad(and with PSAs of 15% rather than 75%)

Still, his is such a sign of how NOT in control were are of events. Oil we have nailed down.

[provis99]

3. who is this dope who wrote the Kurdish north is functional?

If Turkey is contemplating an invasion, isn't that prima facie evidence the area is not functioning? Jeez, sometimes these reporters don't read their own words.

Maybe he meant is "functions" because the Kurds have ethnically cleansed all the Arabs from Kurdish areas, and wiped out Kurdish factions opposing the leadership council's rule? This kind of "functioning" I don't agree with.

[McCamy Taylor]

4. Bush/Cheney's Iraq War will be written up as how NOT TO invade a country.