[NYTr] Iraqis in Kurdish region bordering Turkey fear more violence

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via Intl Herald Tribune - Oct 9, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/09/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Turkey-Scene.php?WT.mc_id=atomafrica

Residents in Iraq's Kurdish region bordering Turkey fear more violence

The Associated Press

IRBIL, Iraq: Plumes of gray smoke rose from hillsides as Iraqi Kurdish
farmers huddled Tuesday to peek into craters they said were left by
artillery shells that hit close to Iraq's restive boundary with Turkey.

Although Ankara has not confirmed any shelling of Iraqi territory, the
Turkish military has said it was carrying out an operation to track
down Kurdish rebels after a deadly attack that killed 13 Turkish
soldiers Sunday in a clash in the country's southeast Turkish province
of Sirnak.

As part of the operation, Turkish troops have been bombing areas near
the border with Iraq to try to prevent rebels from fleeing to their
bases in northern Iraq, the Turkish military said.

Iraqi residents, who claimed Turkish artillery shells landed well into
Iraq, and local officials in the Iraqi Kurdish-run northern region,
feared the shelling was a sign of more to come.

Later Tuesday, Ankara announced after a meeting between Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top Turkish officials that instructions have
been given to prepare for a possible cross-border military operation
into Iraq to chase separatist Kurdish rebels.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabagh said the violence in Sirnak
and the killings of the Turkish soldiers was of "great concern" to
Iraq. He extended condolences to the victims' families and solidarity
with the Turkish people, but stressed that regional cooperation is key
to confronting all terrorist groups.

Al-Dabagh invoked a September counterterrorism agreement signed by Iraq
and Turkey which prohibits Turkey from sending troops to Iraq's north,
and said that preserving that agreement was the way to maintain the
security and sovereignty of both countries.

In the city of Irbil, 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Baghdad, the
Kurdish governor warned Turkey on Tuesday its troops would sustain
heavy losses if they invaded the Kurdish-run northern Iraq.

"If the Turkish troops decided to enter into the Iraq's Kurdistan
territories, their decision would be wrong and they would sustain heavy
casualties and material losses," the governor, Nozad Hadi, the
governor, told AP Television News.

AP Television news footage from the scene showed the aftermath of the
shelling, close to the al-Khalili border crossing. A Turkish flag
fluttered in the wind on the Turkish side of the border while a huge
"Welcome to Kurdistan" billboard stood on the Iraqi side.

Turkey has been pressing Iraq and the United States to hit the bases of
the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq, and has
considered a unilateral military operation across the border to root
out the rebels.

Turkey had been shelling the area earlier this year and built up its
troops on the border but there had been hopes the situation was calming
after the September agreement.

The U.S. is opposed to a military move by Turkey. The U.S., along with
the European Union, has branded the PKK a terrorist organization. Its
members have fought Turkish government forces since 1984, seeking
autonomy for Turkey's ethnic Kurds. The fighting has claimed tens of
thousands of lives.