TURKEY:President Abdullah Gul warned Kurdish rebels yesterday that Turkey's patience was running out after Turkish forces said they had repelled a guerrilla attack near the Iraqi border, writes Evren Mesciin Ankara
Ankara has massed up to 100,000 troops along the mountainous border ahead of a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3,000 rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who launch attacks into Turkey from northern Iraq.
Iraqi, Turkish and US diplomats have stepped up efforts to avert a large-scale Turkish incursion but Mr Gul said Nato-member Turkey would not tolerate any more PKK attacks from Iraq. "We are totally determined to take all necessary steps to end this threat . . . Iraq should not be a source of threat for its neighbours," he told an economic conference in Ankara.
The US is keen to avert a large-scale Turkish offensive in northern Iraq, fearing it would destabilise not only the most peaceful part of that country but potentially also the region as a whole.
"[The US] may not want us to carry out a cross-border operation. But it is we who will decide whether to do one or not," Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan said on a visit to Romania.
Public pressure on Turkish authorities to act has grown since rebels killed 12 soldiers last weekend. The PKK, branded a terrorist organisation by the US, Turkey and the European Union, has said it captured eight soldiers.
"We are doing all we can, [ we are] working with the Iraqi and Turkish governments to make sure the hostages are freed," said Matthew Bryza, US deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs.
Turkish security sources confirmed a series of sorties by warplanes and ground troops since Sunday into Iraqi territory, although Ankara said it still hopes diplomacy can stave off the need for a full-scale ground invasion.
Turkish tanks and artillery helped beat off an attack by up to 40 PKK rebels late on Wednesday on a military post in Hakkari province near the border, security officials said.
After fierce clashes, the guerrillas withdrew into northern Iraq, taking an unknown number of dead and wounded, the officials said. One Turkish soldier was wounded.
F-16 fighter jets took off early yesterday from the airport in Diyarbakir, the largest city of Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast region. Their destination was not known. An Iraqi Kurdish security official said a Turkish warplane bombed a Kurdish village on Wednesday but gave no details of damage.
An Iraqi team, led by defence minister Gen Abdel Qader Jassim and including members of northern Iraq's Kurdish administration, arrived in Ankara for talks which Turkish officials described as a last chance for diplomacy.
The Baghdad government has promised to shut down PKK offices but Ankara knows the central authorities in Iraq hold little sway in the autonomous Kurdish north.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is due to visit Turkey on November 2nd and 3rd to try to ease tension between Turkey and Iraq. Mr Erdogan is expected to meet President Bush in Washington on November 5th.