Turkish soldiers cross into Iraq

by BBC (reposted)

Tue, Dec 18, 2007 7:41AM

Tuesday, December 18, 2007 : Some 300 Turkish troops enter northern Iraq, local officials say, stepping up pressure on Kurdish rebels.

Turkish soldiers on the Turkish-Iraqi border. File photo

Turkish troops have been amassed on the Iraqi border

The lightly-armed soldiers moved up to three kilometres (1.9 miles) inside Iraq, an Iraqi Kurdish official said.

It is believed to be the first major Turkish troop deployment in Iraq since the cabinet backed the move last month to hunt PKK rebels based there.

Separately, Turkish police have held the leader of Turkey's main Kurdish party for using false documents.

Nurettin Demirtas, the head of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), was detained on Monday evening at Ankara's airport on his return from Germany.

He is accused of submitting a fake health report to avoid military service, his party said.

The DTP has 20 members of parliament and seeks autonomy for mainly Kurdish south-eastern Turkey. It denies any links to the rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

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§Turkish troops enter northern Iraq

by Al Jazeera (reposted)

Tue, Dec 18, 2007 7:41AM

Tuesday, December 18, 2007 : Up to 300 soldiers move into Kurdish region as US secretary of state visits Kirkuk.

A group of about 300 Turkish troops have crossed over the border into Kurdish territory in northern Iraq.

A senior Iraqi military source said that the Turkish troops were lightly armed and moved into the Gali Rash area, a mountainous district near the border early on Tuesday.

This first ground incursion comes as Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, made an unannounced visit to Kirkuk in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Turkey says it wants to flush out Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) fighters that carry out attacks on Turkey from bases in Iraq.

A Turkish military official said the soldiers intervened when they PKK fighters across the border. There were no reports of any casualties from what he described as "a limited clash" with the separatists.

"Two PKK groups were spotted just across the border and it was determined that they were planning attacks and a battalion of soldiers intervened," the military official told the Reuters news agency.

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