Turkey says it may launch Iraq incursion

CIZRE: Turkey said on Sunday that a military solution was still on the table to tackle Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, while Washington urged dialogue to avert an incursion it fears will destabilise the region.

Turkish-Iraqi talks aimed at preventing a cross-border operation into northern Iraq collapsed late on Friday as Ankara rejected Iraqi proposals as insufficient.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by fighters, helicopter gunships and tanks on the border for a possible offensive against about 3,000 rebels using Iraq as a base from which to carry out attacks in Turkey. The army sent more equipment to the border on Sunday although sources said preparations were almost complete.

"For example, we can use or continue to use diplomatic means, or resort to military means. All of these are on the table, so to speak," Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said in translated comments on Iran's Press TV television channel.

Alongside diplomatic initiatives, Turkey has used tough rhetoric seen as an attempt to press the United States and Iraq into action. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday a military operation could be carried out whenever it was needed.

Ankara has demanded Iraq hand over all northern Iraq-based members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is blamed for more than 30,000 deaths since the start of its separatist campaign in southeast Turkey in 1984.

But the central government has little control over semi-autonomous northern Iraq run by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com