Posted on Wed, May. 30, 2007

Turkey bolsters troops on Iraq border
By SELCAN HACAOGLU - Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey --
Turkey has reinforced its border with Iraq with large contingents of soldiers, tanks and armored personnel carriers as it urged the U.S. to crackdown on Kurkish rebel bases there and debated staging a cross-border offensive.

For weeks, television stations have broadcast images of military trucks rumbling along the remote border with Iraq's Kurdish zone, and trains transferring tanks and guns to bolster an already formidable force in the area.

The Turkish military has said it routinely reinforces the border with Iraq in the summer to prevent infiltration by the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the United States and Iraq to destroy PKK bases in northern Iraq, and did not rule out a cross-border operation.

"The target is to achieve results," Erdogan said Tuesday. "Our patience has run out. The necessary steps will be taken when needed."

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States has not "seen anything unusual or different" along Turkey's border with Iraq, although there had been counterterrorism military activities on the Turkish side.

Casey said the United States wants to continue working with Turkey "to confront the challenges that are posed by PKK terrorism." He said cooperation between the U.S., Turkey and Iraq was the best way to ensure the border region remains peaceful.

Iraqi Kurdish groups have threatened to resist a Turkish incursion. If U.S. forces take action, they risk alienating Iraqi Kurds, the most pro-American group in the region. If they don't, they risk increased tensions - and possibly worse - with two powerful rivals.

"Our expectation from the United States and Iraq is to scatter and destroy the bases of the terrorist organization in northern Iraq," Erdogan said. "They either turn them over or send them elsewhere."

Turkey's government has repeatedly expressed disappointment with Washington for what it says is a failure to crack down on Kurdish rebels who take refuge in northern Iraq and frequently attack Turkish soldiers and government targets.

"The PKK must be eliminated as a problem between Iraq and Turkey," Turkey's special envoy to Iraq, Oguz Celikkol, told CNN-Turk television on Wednesday after visiting to Iraq to discuss Turkish demands that Iraq and U.S. forces take action against the group.

Asked whether Turkey could take unilateral action, Celikkol said: "Our expectation is that this issue is resolved before it comes to that point."

Past cross-border operations have yielded mixed results, with many guerrillas sheltering in hide-outs and emerging for battle once the bulk of Turkish units withdrew from Iraq.

The Turkish military says up to 3,800 rebels are now based across the border in Iraq and that up to 2,300 operate inside Turkey.

Last week, a ѕυιcιdє bomb blamed on the rebels killed six people in Ankara, and a bomb in a southeastern region where guerrillas are active killed six Turkish soldiers. Another soldier died Wednesday when he stepped on a mine, believed to be planted by the guerrillas near the Iraqi border.

"All the explosives used by the PKK in Turkey are traced back to Iraq," Celikkol said.

Turkish troops say they have killed 10 guerrillas in the country's southeast since Monday.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands since the rebels took up arms in 1984 to fight for autonomy in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast.