TURKEY MAY INVADE IRAQ BUT SERBIA MUST NOT ENTER KOSOVO

Date: 22 Feb 2008

Comment:

Turkish troops cross into northern Iraq 

Turkey's military has sent troops into northern Iraq, saying it's targeting separatist Kurdish PKK rebels who use the mountainous region to launch attacks on Turkey. 

Several Turkish television stations says 3,000 to 10,000 soldiers had entered Iraq, reaching 10 kilometres inside the border. 

Iraqi government officials have protested but say the incursion is limited to only a few hundred Turkish troops. Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq's largely autonomous region of Kurdistan had barred entry to some Turkish troops, they said. CNN Turk television has claimed the Turkish incursion could last 15 days. In Slovenia at a meeting of European Union  defence ministers, chief EU diplomat Javier Solana said Turkey's action was "not the best answer", adding that Iraq's territorial integrity was "very important" to the EU. Since 1984 more than 32,000 people have been killed during the PKK's fight for independence for mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.


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