Kurds Residents
Call On The US To Intervene After Hit With Artillery And Rocket Fire
The Associated Press
October 15, 2007
BAGHDAD: Kurdish residents in villages along Iraq's border with Turkey called
for U.S. intervention after a mountainous area in northern Iraq (Northern
Kurdistan) was hit with artillery and rocket fire over the weekend.
Kurdish authorities were guarded in their response, but residents in the border
village of Inshki called on the United States to intervene.
Iraqi army Col. Hussein Rashid of the border guard forces said Turkish troops
fired more than 250 artillery shells and at least 10 missiles on three areas
inside Iraqi territory late Saturday. But, he said, the shelling caused no
casualties or damages as it hit only abandoned areas in the mountains.
AP Television News footage shot from the village of Inshki, 10 miles from the
city of Duhok city, showed a hillside dotted with balls of fire,
terrifying residents below.
"We condemn the Turkish bombardment of Kurdish areas," resident Salih Kaka Ameen
said. "We demand that American intervene to put an end to this crisis."
Turkey has confirmed shelling Iraqi soil after its troops came under fire on
Friday but did not give a location. The Turkish military also said in a
statement Saturday that its troops have heavily responded to armed attacks from
northern Iraq and will continue to do so.
The Turkish government decided Monday to send a motion to Parliament seeking
approval for a military operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a
government spokesman said.
The spokesman, Cemil Cicek, said he hoped Parliament would vote on the motion
this week — passage is considered likely — but indicated that the government
would still prefer a solution to the conflict that did not involve a
cross-border offensive.
U.S. officials have urged NATO-ally Turkey not to send troops and appealed for a
diplomatic solution with Iraq. The Kurdish self-rule region in northern Iraq is
one of the country's few relatively stable areas and the Kurds also are a
longtime U.S. ally.
A spokesman for the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq declined to
comment.
"We are waiting the Turkish parliamentary authorization for a cross-border
offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq and then we will announce our official
stance," Jamal Abdul Rahman said.
During the 1990s, Turkish troops penetrated Iraqi territory several times,
sometimes with as many as 50,000 troops. The Turkish forces withdrew, leaving
behind about 2,000 soldiers who remain to monitor rebel activities. Ankara
rotates the troops there time to time, but it has not sent reinforcements. A
tank battalion has been stationed at a former airport at the border town of
Bamerni.
