Turkey: Troops Ready to Move Into Iraq

A military official said Friday that soldiers in M-113 armored personnel carriers rolled into northeastern Iraq from near the town of Cukurca, where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran converge. He said the soldiers were reinforcing several thousand Turkish troops already on the Iraqi side of the border and were not ordered to go deeper into Iraq.
Similar reports were front-page news in Turkish newspapers Saturday and were carried on Turkish television stations throughout the night.
"Such news is not true and does not reflect reality," the military statement said.
An official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which controls the Iraqi side of the border, said he had no knowledge of any crossing.
"No Turkish troops have entered into our areas," said KDP spokesman Hoshyar Zebari. "This may be a leakage or dissemination of some information to prepare the minds or prepare the grounds for future large-scale deployment of Turkish troops into our areas."
Iraqi Kurdish groups have vowed to oppose any Turkish intervention.
In Washington, Powell said Friday: "We don’t see any need for any Turkish incursions into northern Iraq."
Washington fears possible friendly fire incidents or Turkish-Iraqi Kurdish clashes if Turkey moves soldiers into the area.
Turkish units along the border are generally part of mobile commando units and can move quickly in and out of the border areas.
Turkey in the past has repeatedly sent in soldiers to fight Turkish Kurdish rebels who have bases in northern Iraq.
Turkey fears that instability in the area could encourage the rebels or lead to a massive flight of refugees. After the 1991 Gulf War, hundreds of thousands of hungry, freezing refugees fled northern Iraq into Turkey.
In response to reports of a deployment, Germany threatened to withdraw its crew members from NATO surveillance planes that are protecting Turkey if Turkey had moved troops into Iraq.
In southeastern Turkey, there were clearly military preparations.
Scores of Turkish tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers were positioned near the border town of Silopi and thousands of Turkish troops were also camping seven kilometers (four miles) away from the Iraqi border.
The entire border area has been declared a military zone and is off limits to journalists.
Some 5,000 Turkish troops were on their way to the border area, military officials said.
Turkey has maintained several thousand soldiers backed by a few dozen tanks in northern Iraq to chase Turkish Kurdish guerrillas for years.
Turkey says Turkish Kurdish rebels benefited from the power vacuum in northern Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War and staged hit-and-run attacks in Turkey from northern Iraq.