Military denies ‘sack incident’ with US forces

"Reports of crossing the Turkish border and placing sacks over the heads of U.S. soldiers are nothing but comments that do not reflect the truth," a statement from the General Staff said over the weekend.

The report, which appeared on Saturday in Referans newspaper, said that some 20 U.S. troops, accompanied by three Iraqi Kurdish Peshmergas, had crossed the Turkish border and had been detained by Turkish forces after one of them had accidentally stepped on a flash mine.

The newspaper added the U.S. soldiers had been detained with sacks placed over their heads, which it said was reprisal for a June 4 incident last year in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya where U.S. troops had detained 11 Turkish soldiers, placing sacks over their heads during their detention.

"On May 19, 2004, at around 6.00 p.m., a patrol team comprising U.S. military personnel and Iraqi border guards approached the post of a Turkish team, deployed in a forward position to ensure the safety of our border units, and a meeting was held with the patrol team in question," the statement said. "Following the meeting, the team of U.S. military personnel and Iraqi border guards left the area," it continued.

The statement said, "Contact between forces who are tasked with fighting against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group, U.S. forces also deployed in the region and the newly formed Iraqi security forces takes place from time to time."

Turkey has troops in northern Iraq to hunt down militants of the outlawed PKK, which has bases in the rugged mountains of the region. The group also goes by the names of KADEK and Kongra-Gel. The group has recently announced an end to a five-year cease-fire and resumed attacks in Turkey’s Southeast against Turkish military targets.

Last year, Ankara scrapped an offer to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq because of objections from Iraqis.