Turkey Denies Shelling Northern Iraq

Reuters ^ | 4/4/2003 | Jon Hemming

[a_Turk]

KARNE, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish officials on Friday accused Turkey of repeated shelling over the border into Iraq (news - web sites), a charge Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul denied.

The charges came as the United States works to defuse tension and deep mistrust between Turkey and the Kurdish groups that run northern Iraq.

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) visited Turkey on Wednesday and said U.S. forces in northern Iraq had stabilized the region, leaving no reason for Turkey to move in.

Faysal Rostaki, a senior officer for the Iraqi Kurdish "peshmerga" force in northern Iraq took reporters to the small village of Karne, 1 mile from the Zahko river that forms part of the border between Turkey and Iraq.

In the town of Dohuk, an official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two groupings that has governed northern Iraq since it broke with Baghdad in the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites), backed the allegations.

In fields near the village, Reuters reporter Jon Hemming saw two holes in the ground surrounded by charred earth and metal shards. No one was injured and no damage was done to the village.

Rostaki said the holes were the result of shelling on three separate occasions in the last week from the Turkish side of the border.

Turkey has stationed a large force of troops and armor near the border, poised for an incursion it says it would launch if Turkish interests were threatened by "terrorism" or by a large refugee wave.

SHEPHERDS AFRAID

Rostaki said after the second wave of shelling on April 1, he had taken three Turkish officers from the small Turkish presence in northern Iraq to see the damage.

"They told us they didn't think it was true so we brought them up here and while they were here the Turks started to shell the place and they ran away," Rostaki said.

"They later confessed it was their attack," he said.

Gul denied the charge.

"This is completely false," Gul told reporters.

A Foreign Ministry official, citing senior General Staff sources, also denied the accusation.

"Nothing of this nature happened. There was no shelling from here," he said. "We remain in close contact with Kurdish groups and with the American military there."

Rostaki called the shelling "a provocation aimed at creating instability" but he said he did not think the Turkish forces planned to move into northern Iraq.

Karne villagers said the shelling made it unsafe for them to herd their flocks of sheep in nearby hills and fields.

"We're scared to go up to the hills. We can't take our sheep there," said shepherd Jihad Tahir. He said he had no idea why Turkey would want to shell the area.

[a_Turk]

Note the word terrorism was placed between quotes..

What value would shelling an empty field have? I think this is the KDP at work to create more strife between the US and Turkey..

[a_Turk]

ping..

[Just mythoughts]

Too soon to call who, what, when, where, and why.

Time will tell and if Turkey thinks they got away with turning their backs on US and can take advantage now they are saddly mistaken.

We the American people who support "freedom" will not take too kindly to anyone stirring the pot.

Some of us considered ourselves being freed from the socialists Clintons and are not going back without a fight.

[Beck_isright]

Sounds like bunk to me too. There is no purpose for Turkey to shell squat, there's no benefit at all. Sounds like one of the "Iraqi Kurdish leaders" is being ignored by all parties as the future moves forward.

V

[Dog Gone]

Unless someone can come up with a plausible motive for Turkish forces to do this (which there isn't), or widespread damage which the modern Turkish forces could inflict (which there wasn't), this report should be treated as pure garbage.

[optimistically_conservative]

I can see why some in Turkey may want to incite the Kurds into giving the Turkish military an excuse to send a "stabilizing" force into Northern Iraq (to protect oil pipelines/fields and prevent Kurdish "terrorism" by the "peshmerga" and a future independent Kurdish state.

Not saying that's being done, just that there is a conceivable motive here.

Now, the only reason I can come up with for the Kurds to do this is to keep the Turkish forces on the border/in Northern Iraq under a microscope so they don't feel there is any opportunity to blindside US/Kurds in the North that have their backs turned fighting South toward Baghdad.

[Francohio]

Turk, ya might as well face it, the Turks are going have to play the Serbian role of bad guy for a while. In the meantime, we will be subjected to reams of copy about the brave and true Kurds who are fighting alongside our boys in Northern Iraq. The Kurds have been assigned the Albanian quaint and colorful "Freedom Fighter" role here.

Once these natural-born brigands get their hands on some oil money, the Turks will really have their hands full!

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

If that were true..and they are trying to create more problems between the US and Turkey, Turkey could dispel that in a nano-second. All Turkey would have to do is allow our troops safe passage into Iraq.

[Beck_isright]

We're already deploying SOF guys on the border to put a buffer there and the deployment is ongoing.

V

[Mortimer Snavely]

Yep.

[FreeCanuckistan]

Might be the KDP alright...........my guess is that it is not them, just the same. They have too much new-found goodwill with the USA to afford any shenanigans.

There are plenty of competing factions, that would dearly love to see a further breakdown of Turkish/US relations.

Scratch beneath the surface.