[NYTr] US warns against Turkish action in Iraq

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters - Oct 9, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSWAT00822720071009?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&sp=true

U.S. warns against Turkish action in Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States cautioned Turkey on Tuesday
against making an incursion into northern Iraq after Kurdish rebels
launched attacks from there and urged both countries to work together
to resolve the conflict.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan gave the go-ahead on Tuesday for
all necessary measures to be taken against Kurdish rebels, including a
possible incursion into northern Iraq, after they carried out a series
of attacks.

But the U.S. State Department warned against such a move.

"If they have a problem, they need to work together to resolve it and I
am not sure that unilateral incursions are the way to go, the way to
resolve the issue," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Asked whether Washington had urged restraint on both sides, McCormack
said sovereign states had to make their own decisions about how best to
defend themselves.

"We have counseled both in public and private for many, many months the
idea that it is important to work cooperatively to resolve this issue,"
he said.

Both the State Department and the White House said the United States
was committed to working with Turkey and Iraq to combat the PKK Kurdish
rebel group that has carried out a series of attacks in Turkey.

"It is critically important that all sides involved in this -- the
Iraqis, the Turks and certainly we will do our part -- work to combat
terrorism. You just can't have these kinds of attacks emanating from
Iraq and I think the Iraqis understand that," said McCormack.

White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe would
not comment specifically on whether the White House would support
Turkey authorizing a possible incursion into northern Iraq, where many
rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, are hiding,
calling that a hypothetical question.

"Iraq and Turkey want to work together on this problem. The most
effective and appropriate way is to protect the citizens of both
countries," he said.

Turkish military officials said Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish
soldiers on Sunday in fighting in Sirnak province, which borders Iraq.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined comment on the latest news
from Turkey.