Kirkuk falls to Kurds, Turkey mobilised

Mr Gül also announced that Turkey would send military observers into the city to ensure that Kurdish Peshmerga (allied to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) withdraw from the city.

The Peshmerga entered the city early on Thursday “with some US special forces” a spokesperson for the PUK said.

Reports indicate that only a handful of US forces are actually in the city, wrong-footed by the Kurdish forces who entered the city sooner than expected and not in synchronisation with coalition forces, as had been planned.

However one US official told the EUobserver that Turkey has been reassured that “US forces are in control.”

In a sign of how potentially explosive the situation is, Washington is backing limited Turkish involvement but are anxious to play-down military overtones.

“We would be happy to have liaison officers accompany some of our units in the interest of transparency” said one US diplomat.

It is not clear yet how many observers will be involved or what their role will be. Both the US and Turkey now find themselves in an extremely difficult situation.

Ankara fears a Kurdish controlled Kirkuk would fuel Kurdish aspirations to statehood and could potentially envelope the whole of South East Turkey, also a Kurdish area.

Turkey’s aspirations to enter the European Union hinge on fulfilling a number of political criteria one of which is having good relations with neighbouring countries.