While the Kurdish sector has long been viewed as the bright spot in post-invasion Iraq, it’s also the powder keg that could widen the war’s scope considerably. PKK rebels have launched attacks into Turkey and the Turkish government has threatened to send troops into northern Iraq after them.
The United States cautioned Turkey on Tuesday against making an incursion into northern Iraq after Kurdish rebels launched attacks from there and urged both countries to work together to resolve the conflict. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan gave the go-ahead on Tuesday for all necessary measures to be taken against Kurdish rebels, including a possible incursion into northern Iraq, after they carried out a series of attacks.
But the U.S. State Department warned against such a move. “If they have a problem, they need to work together to resolve it and I am not sure that unilateral incursions are the way to go, the way to resolve the issue,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. Asked whether Washington had urged restraint on both sides, McCormack said sovereign states had to make their own decisions about how best to defend themselves. “We have counseled both in public and private for many, many months the idea that it is important to work cooperatively to resolve this issue,” he said.
Both the State Department and the White House said the United States was committed to working with Turkey and Iraq to combat the PKK Kurdish rebel group that has carried out a series of attacks in Turkey. “It is critically important that all sides involved in this — the Iraqis, the Turks and certainly we will do our part — work to combat terrorism. You just can’t have these kinds of attacks emanating from Iraq and I think the Iraqis understand that,” said McCormack.
If they have a problem?! A sovereign country is being attacked by forces in another country — one that has been occupied by American soldiers for going on five years now. I’d say we’re beyond If.
Map courtesy GlobalSecurity.org
