Turkey Reinforcing the Iraqi Border

Some 500 trucks left the southeastern province of Sanliurfa early Friday and were headed toward the border, military sources said. The trucks were carrying tanks, ambulances, and jeeps.
Turkey has said it will send tens of thousands of troops into northern Iraq if there is a war to depose Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Turkey says the move aims at preventing a flood of refugees and the creation of a possible Kurdish state if Iraq disintegrates.
Iraqi Kurds have threatened to resist the Turkish troops.
Barham Salih, a senior official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two factions that control northern Iraq, was in Ankara on Friday for talks aimed at reducing tensions.
The United States is looking to base 62,000 soldiers in Turkey for a possible war, but Turkey’s parliament rejected a resolution that would have allowed in the troops.
Turkey’s government has indicated that it will press for a new vote, but officials in the government party said it could take two or three weeks.
Turkey has already authorized the U.S. military to renovate Turkish ports and bases for a possible war and the pace of that work seemed to accelerate this week.
Workers unloaded U.S. military vehicles, ambulances, construction equipment and other material from a 22,000 ton freighter at the southern Turkish port of Iskenderun.
On Thursday, some 30 trucks carrying U.S. jeeps, fuel trucks, and other support equipment left the port for a waiting station outside the nearby city of Mardin. It was the first time U.S. military material had left Turkish ports