Rogue Forces

BBC NEWS ONLINE, 30 OCTOBER 2007:

…Tensions between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdish region had been rising steadily in the months running up to the current crisis, triggered by PKK attacks which have killed some forty Turkish troops in recent weeks.

…In May, Turkey was angered when the three provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan were handed security control by the US-led multinational forces, and promptly raised the Kurdish flag instead of the Iraqi one.

…“You don’t need 100,000 [Turkish] troops to take their positions,” said a senior Iraqi Kurd politician. “What they’re clearly planning to do is to stage a major incursion and take control of the major land routes inside Iraqi Kurdistan leading up into the border mountains from the Iraqi side.”

…There is speculation in Kurdish circles that the Turks might also try to bomb or otherwise neutralize the two Iraqi Kurdish airports, at Irbil and Sulaymaniyah, which Ankara asserts have been allowing PKK fighters to gain refuge.

…“The Turks could wipe them out or bomb them as they have done in the past. What they are proposing is something larger than that. They are talking about a large-scale military incursion, which is getting people extremely, extremely nervous and worried. The concern of many people is that Turkish ambition may stretch beyond taking out the PKK…”

BBC NEWS ONLINE, 18 JANUARY 2008:

…Turkey has been threatening military action against the PKK ever since insurgents intensified their attacks on Turkish troops, putting the government here under immense public pressure to respond with force. Last month, the government authorized the military to carry out cross-border operations [into Iraq] against the PKK whenever necessary.

The air strikes on Sunday night were the first serious sign of that.

…Ankara says it has tacit approval from the U.S. for its operations, under an agreement reached in Washington last month by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President George W. Bush.

“I believe the USA supplied actionable intelligence, and the Turkish military took action,” Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Levent Bilman told the BBC…