Turkey Launches Iraq Ground Offensive

[unhappycamper]

Turkey Launches Iraq Ground Offensive
Associated Press | February 22, 2008

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkish troops have launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels, the military said Feb. 22 - a move that dramatically escalates Turkey's conflict with the militants.

It's the first confirmed ground operation by the Turkish military into Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and it raised concerns that it could trigger a wider conflict with the U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurds.

The ground operation started after Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed suspected rebel targets on Feb. 21, the military said on its Web site. The ground incursion was backed by the Air Force, the statement said.

Turkey has conducted air raids against the PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq since December, with the help of U.S. intelligence, and it has periodically carried out so-called "hot pursuits" in which small units sometimes spend only a few hours inside Iraq.

So the announcement of a cross-border, ground incursion of a type that Turkey carried out before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a major development in the conflict.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,162579,00.html?wh=wh

[The_Commonist]

1. Not good!

Not good at all...