Turkey to vote on U.S. forces

An official from Gul’s Justice and Development Party said the government would only seek the power to allow U.S. military engineers to upgrade Turkish facilities. A decision to allow larger numbers of U.S. troops to use Turkey as a base for an attack on Iraq would require another parliamentary decision.
The assembly will be adjourned next week for a religious holiday, which could put off authorisation until mid-February. The government caution is believed in part to be aimed at appeasing public opinion, which is strongly opposed to a U.S.-led war against its fellow Muslim neighbour.
Gul was speaking as Iraq has boosted its tank and artillery forces outside the city of Mosul, which is 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the border with Turkey.
"There’s definitely been an increase in troops," Suleyman Ali, a 35-year-old trucker from southern Turkey, told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "There’s always been some military presence, but now there are many more cannons, tanks and anti-aircraft guns." Driver Gazi Idis, who left Mosul on Sunday, said tanks and artillery guns could be seen near the main road leading to the city under camouflage netting and said Iraqis have been building up forces for the past two months.
"They brought excavators to dig out deep circular bunkers in the soil and they moved their tanks into them," Idis said.
Hasan Zirik, also a truck driver, said the Iraqis were using sandbags to set up foxholes on the sides of road.