PKK linked to Turkish embassy bombing
BAGHDAD (NEWS DAY) – US and Iraqi officials had thought initially that Tuesday’s suicide bombing was the work of Saddam Hussein supporters or fighters linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network who have slipped into Iraq in recent months. But investigators have developed evidence of the PKK’s (or Kurdish Workers Party) involvement in the bombing, which injured 10 people, said a senior official at the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
"The investigation is not finished, but there are signs that the PKK was behind this bombing," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
If blame is ultimately placed on the PKK, it would create another complicating factor for the US-led occupation of Iraq. The PKK, which fought a 15-year war against the Turkish army that earned both sides reputations for brutality, has been based in the rugged mountains of northern Iraq since it was crushed by Turkish forces in the 1990s.
The group has about 5,000 fighters, and the United States recently demanded that it disarm and stop carrying out military operations from Iraqi territory.
The attack on the heavily fortified Turkish embassy in Baghdad came a week after Turkey’s parliament voted to send troops to Iraq. Most Iraqis, including the US-appointed Governing Council, are opposed to Turkey deploying 10,000 troops to bolster US forces in Iraq.
Iraqis are worried that Turkey wants to dominate oil-rich northern Iraq and that the presence of Turkish troops will cause friction with Iraq’s Kurdish minority.
PKK leader Osman Ocalan, who took command of the group after his older brother Abdullah was captured by Turkey in 1999, has said he is willing to disarm his group if US officials agree to allow his fighters to remain in their mountain bases.
"If the conditions are good enough, disarmament will not be a problem," he told Newsday earlier this month.
The suicide bombing had signaled that Iraqi insurgents attacking US troops also would target Turkish forces if they are deployed here. But the situation would become even more complicated if the PKK and other Kurdish groups attack Turkish troops in Iraq.
"It would be a very troubling development if the PKK was targeting Turkish interests in Iraq," said the Interior Ministry official.
Despite Iraqi complaints, the United States strongly supports the Turkish deployment. Washington hopes Ankara’s decision will lead to an influx of other international troops to help control Iraq and perhaps lessen US casualties. British, Spanish and Polish troops are now deployed in Iraq.
The Turks would be the first contingent from a Muslim country and from one of Iraq’s neighbors.
"All the Iraqi political parties agree on one thing: We don’t want a Turkish presence in Iraq," said Ali Abdel-Amir, a spokesman for Iyad Allawi, who is chairing the Governing Council this month. "The Turkish presence would be a destabilizing force."
In a sign of the other threats facing US-led forces, the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera yesterday aired a new audiotape purportedly from bin Laden warning of more suicide attacks against Americans.
The voice warned Iraqis against cooperating with US forces and urged young people in neighboring countries to join a holy war against the Americans.
"We will respond at the appropriate time and place against all the countries participating in this unjust war, particularly Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland, Japan and Italy," the voice said.
The speaker also warned of more attacks on US soil. "I tell the American people," the voice said. "We will continue fighting you and we will continue martyrdom operations inside and outside the United States until you stop your injustice and you end your foolishness."
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said in Washington that agency analysts already were at work on the tape to assess its authenticity.
