| Turkey sent 1,000 troops into northern Iraq on Friday to bolster its military presence and promised to send more to prevent Iraqi Kurds from creating an independent state.
The United States strongly opposes any unilateral move by Turkey into northern Iraq, fearing it would disrupt the U.S. campaign to oust Saddam Hussein. Iraqi Kurds — who like Turkey are U.S. allies — have threatened attacks on any invading Turkish forces.
"We don't see any need for any Turkish incursions into northern Iraq," Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, however, insisted Turkey was determined to send in a large force.
Ankara fears the U.S.-led war could lead to Iraq's fragmentation, prompting Iraqi Kurds to declare independence. It wants to impose a presence in the north to prevent that step, which could encourage Turkey's Kurdish separatists.
"Turkish soldiers will go in," Gul told reporters. He said Turkey's objectives were "Iraq's territorial integrity" and containing within Iraq any refugee flow caused by the war.
"Turkey has no designs whatsoever on Iraq's territory," Gul said.
Turkey moved 1,000 soldiers into northern Iraq on Friday, a Turkish military official said. The mechanized infantry unit, which included armored personnel carriers, crossed into Iraq near the town of Cukurca, where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran converge.
The military is also shifting some 5,000 soldiers to the border region, the official said on customary condition of anonymity. Thousands of troops are camped near the town of Silopi, close to the border and about 20 miles south of the town of Cizre.
Turkey already maintains several thousand soldiers in northern Iraq to chase Turkish Kurdish guerrillas. Some of those troops were moved Friday to strategic hilltops used in the past by Iraqi Kurds for anti-aircraft guns, the military official said.
Gul's statement came after Turkey agreed to allow U.S. overflights for the war, held up because of differences over Turkish troop deployments in Iraq.
Source: AP | |
