A New War in Iraq?

[ProSense]

A New War in Iraq?

Thursday, Jun. 07, 2007 By ANDREW LEE BUTTERS/NAHR AL-BARED

The last thing that war-torn Iraq needs right now is another war, but that may be what it's about to get. Thousands of Turkish soldiers are massed at the border with Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq, possibly preparing to make good on Ankara's threat to cross the border and deal with the radical Kurdish militants of the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades long separatist insurgency inside Turkey.

The PKK, which the U.S. and Turkey brand a terrorist organization and which they blame for a long series of bombings in Turkish cities, maintains training camps in the mountains of northern Iraq along the Turkish and Iranian borders. The Iraqi Kurdish parties who control the largely autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq have tolerated the PKK presence because they are wary of an armed confrontation with fellow Kurds, especially while their territory faces threats from an Arab insurgency in the rest of country. But staging a large-scale military campaign against the PKK could pose problems for Turkey. The PKK are adept mountain fighters, and the conventional Turkish army will be hard pressed to root them out of their chosen terrain. Fueled by anger over their status in Turkey, and hardened by years of bitter struggle against its security forces, the PKK is unlikely to give in to force now.

To complicate matters further, the Turkish campaign might tempt Iran to stage military operations inside northern Iraq too. Iran accuses an offshoot of the PKK of staging attacks inside Iranian territory, and has previously shelled camps inside Iraq. The United States has called on everyone to keep their hands off northern Iraq, but that could change. The fate of Kurdish groups fighting Iran would potentially be a useful card for the U.S. to play in its dealings with Tehran.

Even limited Turkish action on Iraqi territory bodes ill for Iraq — although Iraq's Kurdish parties are unlikely to be drawn into the conflict, a Turkish military operation in northern Iraq would set a violent precedent in an already tense relationship. Turkey is wary of the growing autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan, which it fears will fuel the aspirations of its own restive Kurds.

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Iraq rejects Turkish call to curb PKK

2 hours, 46 minutes ago

SALAHEDDIN, Iraq (AFP) - The president of Iraq's Kurdish region on Thursday rejected Ankara's declaration that it was ready for dialogue with Iraqi Kurds provided they took measures against Turkish Kurd rebels holed up in the autonomous enclave.

"We do not accept the conditions laid down to deal with the PKK. We have always said that we would help Turkey if it chooses the path of dialogue and we confirm this," Massoud Barzani told a news conference alongside Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd.

"If Turkey's aim is war, we are not prepared to accept these conditions," Barzani added.

The PKK or Kurdistan Workers' Party, branded as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has fought for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Turkey charges that thousands of PKK rebels have found refuge in northern
Iraq where they are able to obtain weapons and explosives to launch attacks across the border.

Ankara accuses Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and even supporting the rebels.

"A Turkish invasion would be first of all an attack on Iraqi sovereignty and then an attack on the Kurds," said Barzani.

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[Jim__]

1. I certainly hope not.

I think that makes it harder for us to get out; and harder for the whole situation to be resolved; and increases the risk that the whole region goes up.

[ProSense]

2. "why does the Bush administration allow its Kurdistan allies to harbor PKK terrorists?"

"why does the Bush administration allow its Kurdistan allies to harbor PKK terrorists?"