Turkey eyes fall of Kirkuk

The city had been pounded by US B-52 bombers earlier in the morning, triggering the Iraqi collapse.
Journalists reporting from the city described the situation as chaotic as Kurdish soldiers claimed they were in control of the entire city with only a few pockets of resistance.
Kirkuk had been an Iraqi government controlled area just to the west and south of a Kurdish-ruled zone created under western protection after the Gulf War of 1991.
The city’s fall to Kurdish guerillas triggered immediate concerns in neighbouring Turkey which fears a resurgent Kurdish nationalism would revive separatist agitation in its southeast. Ankara believes that Iraqi Kurd control of Kirkuk may provide the financial basis for an future independent Kurdish state.

“It wouldn’t be important if the Kurdish Peshmergas were acting spontaneously and withdrew. But it would be unacceptable if they were there permanently,” a senior Turkish foreign ministry official said.
Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul said earlier that Turkey was watching events in northern Iraq closely. “Whatever is necessary will be done,” he said.
Turkey has a large armoured force near the Iraqi border and has repeatedly said that it would enter Iraqi territory if its interests were threatened. In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, its parliament denied a US request to use Turkish territory to open a northern front.
In Washington White House spokesman Ari Fleischer tried to allay Turkish concerns by saying US forces “will be in control of Kirkuk.”
Reporting from northern Iraq, Al Jazeera correspondent Waddah Khanfar said that the Kurdish advance into Kirkuk was unexpected and came as a surprise. Soldiers of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan(PUK) entered the city without any notice, taking by surprise leaders of the other main Kurdish organisation in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party(KDP).
Keeping in view the response that it could evoke from Turkey, the Kurds had earlier pledged not to enter Kirkuk without the consent of US-led forces operating in the region.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that the Kurdish soldiers and US-led troops are preparing for a full-fledged assault on Mosul. Al Jazeera correspondents from northern Iraq reported that the US today air-dropped tanks and heavy artillery into the region in preparation of the assault.
Kurdish leaders were also stated to be negotiating with tribal chiefs in Mosul for winning them over with the aim to secure an easy passage into the northern Iraqi town. —Al Jazeera