Turkey urges action against Kurds in northern Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17219531.htm

ANKARA, July 17 (Reuters) - Turkey, increasingly exasperated by Kurdish rebel attacks on its security forces, reaffirmed on Monday its right under international law to conduct cross-border operations against guerrillas holed up in Iraq.

Several thousand members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are believed to be hiding in the mountains of mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, from where they slip across the border to attack Turkish police, troops and other targets.

PKK rebels have killed 16 members of Turkey's security forces in the past week alone in the southeast of the country.

"A military operation against PKK militants in northern Iraq is an issue that is always on Turkey's agenda... We have the right to defend ourselves," Foreign Ministry Under-Secretary Ali Tuygan told reporters.

[pinto]

1. Thanks for the post. The Kurd/Turkey issue gets overlooked in the midst

of all the mayhem. There's long term trouble here, especially when/if oil revenue/resources get partitioned among the three Iraq factions.

[bullimiami]

2. are we going to backstab yet another ally to appease another

typical.

[Old and In the Way]

3. Another application of the Bush pre-emption doctrine.

Just what Iraq needs now...

[WCGreen]

4. If the IDF can do it....

Why can't the Turks....