Pat Dollard | Young Americans

NYSUN:

WASHINGTON — America, NATO, and Britain are all supporting Turkish strikes and a brief incursion into northern Iraq to root out positions alleged to belong to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

The support for the Turkish strikes yesterday represents a shift for America and Europe, which have cautioned the Turks against a serious military incursion. But tensions on the border between northern Iraq and Turkey boiled over when the Kurdish separatist group, known as the PKK, aired a video of Turkish soldiers it abducted in raids earlier this week.

“Our understanding is that Turkish forces carried out limited incursions into Iraqi territory in pursuit of PKK targets,” a State Department spokesman, David Foley, said.

He added: “We support the Turkish government in their defense of Turkey against terrorism. We urge restraint against actions that would destabilize the region.”

Also yesterday, Secretary of State Rice told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that she hoped a meeting scheduled for today in Ankara between the Iraqis and the Turks would ease border tensions. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gates said America and Turkey needed better intelligence before committing to airstrikes in the Qandil mountains, where the PKK leadership is believed to be hiding out.

American and Iraqi military officials told The New York Sun that Turkey conducted the airstrikes into Kurdish territory with American-made F–16 jets and that a small group of commandos crossed over the border in the Qandils. The border there is not marked well, and the incursion was no more than a few miles, an Iraqi official said.