Iraqi Kurds report Turkish, Iranian shelling in northern Iraq

[sabra]

Source: AP

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Turkish and Iranian forces shelled Kurdish rebel positions across the border in northern Iraq, Iraqi Kurd officials reported Friday, amid fears that the conflict could open a new front in Iraq.

Turkey has been building up its forces along the border with Iraq, and its leaders are debating whether to stage a major incursion to pursue separatist rebels who cross over from bases in Iraq to attack Turkish targets. Such an operation could ignite a wider conflict involving Iraqi Kurds, and disrupt Turkey's ties with its NATO ally, the United States.

Iran has also clashed with Iranian Kurd fighters who have bases in remote, mountainous areas of northern Iraq. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, the party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, reported the Turkish and Iranian shelling on its Web site. Turkish military authorities at the General Staff in Ankara were not immediately available for comment.

...

The PUK said artillery shells overnight hit some areas in the Sidikan area in Irbil province, where the borders of Turkey, Iran and Iraq converge, and that nine villages were affected. It was unclear whether there was any degree of coordination among Turkish and Iranian gunners.

Read more: http://www.pr-inside.com/iraqi-kurds-report-turkish-iranian-shelling-r148059.htm

[bemildred]

1. You don't muster 250,000 troops to play patty-cake.

And don't be surprised if the Iranians and Turks are in cahoots on this.

[IndianaGreen]

7. Kurdish terrorism is a problem that Iraq has failed to curtail

The only difference is that the US has been sponsoring Kurdish terrorism against Iran.

Like you, I wouldn't be surprised if Turkey and Iran were in cahoots, but even if they weren't, this is an opportunity for either of them to put the Kurds in their proper place.

[Orrin_73]

9. IndianaGreen, the problem is not kurds only a minority

of Kurds.

[bemildred]

10. I'm not prepared to take the Turks' side against the Kurds.

Or vice-versa. War sucks. I'm just saying the Turks didn't mobilize all those troops as a form of political theater. This has an excellent possibility of turning into a large scale war. They are going to have to do something with all those troops or there will be Hell to pay domestically. It could "get out of hand". This has been brewing for a long time.

[IndianaGreen]

13. As we saw in Occupied Palestine, the oppressed Kurds have become the oppressors

They have treated everyone like shit since Saddam was toppled, and I am not just speaking of the Sunis, but Turkemen and Shia alike. There have been several stories in the foreign press of officially sanction Kurdish actions to rectify historical grievances, often on the backs of innocent parties.

As to Turkey, it is a sad fact that Kurdish terrorist groups, with the tacit support of Iraq fractious government, have been conducting terrorist raids inside Turkey. Dozens of innocent Turks have been killed. Turkey has exercised tremendous restraint up until now.

[bemildred]

17. Nothing quite like a sense of entitlement and victimhood to enable bad behavior.

Doesn't seem to be an ethnic trait, I think we are all capable of it.

[ValiantBlue]

15. I believe that there were

reports of the Turks and Iranians coordinating artillery strikes into northern Iraq many months ago.

[bemildred]

16. Yes, I remember that. nt

[burrowowl]

14. Hell! 250,000

if true is more than we have in Iraq. I suppose they will keep our GIs out of the area. And, since Turkey is a member of NATO what is the position regarding encounters between our forces and Turkish forces???

[bemildred]

18. That is the largest number I have seen, it could be wrong.

Nobody seems to be saying less than 50,000 or so.

[madrchsod]

2. ap just maybe making this up

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=113506
TODAY'S ZAMAN

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=75332
Military buffering the Iraqi border - Turkish Daily News Jun 08, 2007

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=180133&s=&i=&t=Iraq_rejects_Turkish_call_to_curb_PKK
Iraq rejects Turkish call to curb PKK

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=6/7/2007&Cat=2&Num=8
Description of Selected News

no one else is reporting on what ap is reporting...

[sabra]

3. Voice of Iraq: Turkish artillery shell northern Iraqi areas

http://66.111.34.180/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=47797&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

Duhuk, Jun 8, (VOI) - Turkish artillery shelled areas inside Iraqi territories with no reports of casualties, local residents and Kurdish military sources said on Friday.

"Areas near the villages of Dasht Dakh, Barkh Siyara, Kashan and Mula Khamtiry of Zakho district came, late last night, under Turkish artillery shelling and machine-gun fire for almost two hours, setting villagers into a panic, but no casualties resulted," Mohammed Saleh, 52, from the nearby Darkar village told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Luqman Keisti, 28-years old from Keista village near the Turkish border, told VOI "areas near the villages of Keista, Karah, Bitkar and Spindar came under heavy bombardment last night from the Turkish artillery."
Iraqi Kurdish military sources confirmed the Turkish shelling but declined to give furthers details.
Meanwhile Abdul Rahman Mahmud, 55, owner of a bees farm near the border village of Nazdor, told VOI "three Turkish helicopters landed at the Kumer military site near the Iraqi-Turkish borders this morning."

[iraqigirl2death]

4. why not Turkey..??

Iran, Saudi Arabia, USA, Jordan, Syria......
so why not Turkey, will that make any diffrence , Iraq is destroyed

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[anotherdrew]

6. if comparison is to be deleted, how about I just say, they have every right to a homeland

and Turkey should pay a heavy price for the decades of bullshit they've heaped on the kurds.

Take part of Turkey, part or Iraq and Part of Iran and make a new country for them. It's been done before.

[Orrin_73]

8. While were are there why stop with the kurds

there are many countries in the world where borders could be changed and what about the south west of USA also called 'Aztlan'. Your post is dumb, the borders are definitive. I doubt there is a power in the world that can carve up Turkey, if they still insist they should be ready for a long bloody war with us (Turks). If the Kurds in Turkey want a nation they can immigrate to northern Iraq.

[anotherdrew]

11. ok, I'd agree to that in a second. will Turkey let them go? n/t

[Orrin_73]

12. Why not, besides the kurds we are mentioning in

Turkey that are responsible for this, are not representative for the majority of the kurds in turkey, only a small minority. The ones that cause all the problems can leave. Im mostly Turkish I have also kurdish relatives, the pkk does not represent all the kurds.

[maddezmom]

19. Iraq protest Turkey's shelling summons Turkey's top diplomat

Iraq protest Turkey's shelling 29 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Saturday it has summoned Turkey's top diplomat in Baghdad to protest cross-border shelling into northern Iraq.

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A statement said Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Mahmoud called for an immediate halt to the shelling, saying such actions "undermine confidence between the two nations and negatively affect their friendship."

The statement was the first government confirmation of the shelling.

Mahmoud said the shelling had started large fires and caused serious damage, but gave no other details.

more;http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070609/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_turkey_1;_ylt=Aob0howeIdYm__sDeh.cjXhX6GMA

[maddezmom]

20. Turk border province rallies against PKK violence

SIRNAK, Turkey, June 9 (Reuters) - Thousands of people took to the streets of Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast on Saturday in a state-sponsored demonstration against separatist violence.

The protesters, mainly state-paid village guards, civil servants and schoolchildren, waved Turkish flags and chanted anti-guerrilla slogans in the remote hillside town of Sirnak, overlooking the Iraqi border some 50 km (30 miles) away.

In recent months there has been an upsurge in the decades-old conflict between the army and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, who cross the border from mountain bases in northern Iraq to attack Turkish forces.

The rally came amid rising speculation about a possible Turkish army incursion into northern Iraq and coincided with a call from the army General Staff in Ankara on Friday for Turks to show a "mass resistance reflex" to PKK attacks.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09269709.htm

[Massachusetts]

21. No good outcome here.

Old scores will be settled.