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Turkish troops mass at Iraqi border Iraq developments

Leaders struggle to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 23, 2007

SIRNAK, Turkey - Dozens of Turkish military vehicles streamed toward the Iraqi border with heavy artillery Monday after Kurdish guerrillas killed a dozen soldiers and claimed to have captured eight in an intensifying crisis threatening to spill into Iraq.

Arab nations joined the United States and Europe in urging Turkey's government not to attack suspected guerrilla bases in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, while Turkish citizens rallied, demanding action against the rebels.

Iraq's president said the guerrillas would announce a cease-fire. But the rebels denied that, saying a cease-fire they declared in June was still in place.

With tensions worsening, the Turkish foreign minister said his government was pursuing a diplomatic solution to halt rebel operations out of havens in Iraq, but warned that it wanted to see results soon if an escalation in military action was to be avoided.

At least five U.S.-made transport helicopters ferrying soldiers and Cobra helicopter gunships were seen flying toward the frontier.

The Pentagon has said 60,000 Turkish soldiers have deployed along the border. The north is one of the few relatively calm Iraqi regions, and the United States fears an incursion by its ally Turkey could worsen the Iraq war.

President Bush talked with both Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday to express his "deep concern" about attacks on Turkish soldiers, said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by telephone Sunday night that Turkey expected "speedy steps from the United States" in quelling the PKK. He said Rice asked "for a few days."

Erdogan did not specify what he meant by "speedy steps," but he has often urged the United States and Iraq to crack down on the PKK.

Raid aftermath: Leaders in the Iraqi Parliament said Monday that they were taking steps to examine the U.S. military presence in Iraq with an eye toward possibly restricting the force's activities, in a continuing backlash over a U.S. raid in Baghdad that Iraqi officials say killed 13 civilians. The U.S. military maintained it killed 49 "criminals" in the raid Sunday on Sadr City, a mostly Shiite Muslim neighborhood, and was unaware of civilian casualties. But journalists saw the corpses of two children at a hospital who were killed in the attack.

Violence: At least 50 people were killed or found dead nationwide. The figure included 25 bullet-riddled bodies in a mass grave.

Compensation: The U.S. military has agreed to give about $650,000 to three British soldiers and a Kuwaiti interpreter injured when a U.S. military truck slammed into their vehicle in Iraq in May 2003.

Journalist missing: A Baghdad-based correspondent for U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is missing and her driver has been found dead, the broadcaster said Monday.

[Last modified October 23, 2007, 00:08:45]