Pat Dollard | Young Americans

The Turkish government last month won parliament’s backing to order troops into northern Iraq if necessary to strike at bases used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party…Turkey has subsequently massed an estimated 100,000 troops and military equipment on the border with Iraq.

Turkey is preparing for a military strike against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a senior general said Thursday, but gave no details on the timing or scale of such an operation.

“The parliament has authorised the cabinet (on a cross-border operation). We are now in the process of implementing the mandate for a cross-border operation,” said Ilker Basbug, the head of land forces, according to Anatolia news agency.

“When and how this mandate will be implemented is, of course, a completely separate issue,” he added.

The Turkish government last month won parliament’s backing to order troops into northern Iraq if necessary to strike at bases used by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK uses the bases to launch attacks into Turkish territory.

Turkey has subsequently massed an estimated 100,000 troops and military equipment on the border with Iraq.

Basbug stressed that the Turkish miltary stood ready to launch cross-border raids against PKK, considered a terrorist organization by much of the international community.

“Our task…is to deliver a blow to the terrorist organization wherever it may be, at home or abroad, when the right conditions are in place,” the general said.

Basbug’s comments came a day after Ankara said the United States had begun to share intelligence on rebel targets in the north of Iraq.

US President George W. Bush had promised the intelligence during talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week in Washington.

Pressure for Turkish military action against the PKK bases increased after October 21, when rebels ambushed a Turkish military unit near the Iraqi border, killing 12 troops, injuring 17 and capturing eight.

On Tuesday, four more soldiers were killed in fresh fighting near the border, triggering a wave of public anger.

More than 37,000 people have died since the PKK took up arms in 1984 for self-rule in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.

Turkey says it is left with no option but military action because Iraq and the United States have not done enough to curb PKK activities.

Both Washington and Baghdad oppose any large-scale Turkish military action in northern Iraq, fearing that it could destabilize the only relatively calm part of the war-torn country.

(SW)