Turkey on brink of invading Iraq after rebel clashes kill 17 troops

Tim Shipman
UK Daily Mail
Monday October 22, 2007

Turkish leaders last night held a crisis summit to consider invading Iraq after border clashes with Kurdish separatists left dozens dead.

Rebel positions along the rugged Turkish-Iraqi border were shelled by Turkish artillery units in retaliation for a rebel attack that killed at least 17 soldiers.

The attack, the worst in more than a decade by separatists from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), came four days after Turkey's parliament approved a motion to allow troops to enter Iraq to fight guerillas hiding there.

Kurdish rebels want to carve out their own homeland from part of south-east Turkey and northern Iraq.

Turkish military, civilian and intelligence leaders gathered for an emergency meeting last night to decide whether to push into mountainous northern Iraq to try to inflict a blow on the increasingly aggressive Kurdish rebels.

Turkey's defence minister, Vecdi Gonul, said they were "planning to cross the border" – but added "not urgently".

Britain, the U.S., the EU and Iraq all oppose an invasion. U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates met Mr Gonul in Ukraine yesterday and urged Turkey not to launch a major cross-border incursion.

The 17 soldiers died when an estimated 200 guerillas attacked an infantry company near the village of Daglica, less than three miles from the Iraqi border.

Mr Gonul said 16 Turkish soldiers had also been injured and ten others were missing. The PKK claimed that its guerillas had captured a "number" of Turkish soldiers.

In a separate attack yesterday, one civilian was killed and at least 13 more injured when a landmine exploded as a minibus – part of a wedding convoy – passed near where the soldiers died.

Turkey said its troops were chasing the rebels and pounding 63 suspected positions.

Deputy prime minister Cemil Cicek would not say whether the positions were on Iraqi soil. Turkish troops, backed by helicopter gunships, had killed 32 rebels.

"Whatever is necessary in this struggle is being done and will be done," he added. "Every kind of attack will be avenged many times over."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "I utterly condemn the attacks by the PKK. I want to express my complete solidarity with the government, armed forces and people of Turkey.

"The Turkish government is right to seek a solution through dialogue with the Iraqi government."