DTN News: Turkish Troops Enter Iraq After Kurd Rebel Attacks

DTN News: Turkish Troops Enter Iraq After Kurd Rebel Attacks

Source: DTN News / Abdul Hamid Zebari

(NSI News Source Info) ANKARA, Turkey - June 21, 2010: Turkish forces pushed into northern Iraq on Sunday, killing four people, including a 15-year-old girl, as they hit back against hideouts of Kurdish rebels who killed 12 soldiers in the deadliest spell of violence in two years. The ground incursion into Iraq came after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to fight the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) "to the end" and PKK spokesman Ahmed Denis hit back with a threat to attack cities across Turkey if the army did not halt its policy of confrontation. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a Kurd, criticised the "unilateral" Turkish action and called on Erdogan's government to return to peaceful efforts to woo Turkey's large Kurdish minority away from violence. By morning, the troops had advanced 10 kilometres (six miles) into Iraqi territory in the Qandil mountains where the rebels maintain a network of rear bases in their 26-year-old armed campaign for self-rule in southeastern Turkey, the Iraqi Kurdish security official said. Turkish troops were operating in the mountains north of the town of Sidikan in Arbil province, one of three that make up the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq, the official said. Turkish fire killed a 15-year-old girl and wounded her mother and two-year-old brother in Khwakurq village, Sidikan district commissioner Ahmed Qader told AFP. As Turkish forces advanced into Iraqi territory during the night they killed another three people, a security official said, without specifying whether the dead were civilians or PKK fighters. Inside Turkey, the rebels kept up their attacks, killing one soldier and wounding another, bringing the military's losses in the past two days to 12, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported. The new casualties came as the Turkish premier joined other dignitaries in the eastern city of Van to honour the 11 soldiers who died on Saturday -- the bloodiest single day for the army since 2008. "We are not going to slide into defeatism... we are going fight on to the end," Erdogan said at the televised ceremony. The death toll prompted indignation among ordinary Turks, with many cultural and sporting events cancelled in mourning. Around 1,000 demonstrators gathered in Istanbul, chanting: "An eye for an eye." On Monday morning, Turkish President Abdullah Gul is to chair a meeting of top political and military chiefs to discuss the upsurge in violence, Anatolia news agency reported. Last year, Erdogan had announced a new policy of boosting Kurdish freedoms and investment in the country's impoverished southeast. But it has faltered amid an opposition outcry that Ankara is bowing to the PKK, as well as persistent rebel attacks and a judicial onslaught on Kurdish activists. The Iraqi foreign minister called for a return to the previous policy. "This initiative is a wise one and needs to be embraced, enhanced and translated into action as the best solution for this age-old problem," Zebari told AFP in an interview. "Of course we do not condone or support any cross-border terrorist attacks by the PKK," he stressed, adding that nonetheless "no country should resort to unilateral action." Zebari said he feared Turkey was stepping up its incursions and air raids as the clock ticks down to an August 31 deadline for Washington to pull out 38,000 of its remaining 88,000 troops in Iraq. "I personally believe the reason they are escalating these attacks now is to test the will of the Iraqi government, and also the American forces, as a prelude to the withdrawal of US combat forces in August," Zebari said. "We are capable of filling the vacuum and we will not allow any other countries to step in to fill that vacuum." Sunday's Turkish ground incursion was the second in five days and went far deeper than the previous incursion on Wednesday when troops advanced just a few kilometres (miles) before withdrawing. The conflict with the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by much of the international community, has killed more than 45,000 people since it broke out in 1984, according to the Turkish army.

DTN News: US Troops Are Still Needed In Iraq

DTN News: US Troops Are Still Needed In Iraq

*The US withdrawal from Iraq in June has failed to live up to expectations, with devastating consequences for the Iraqi people

*Source: DTN News / Guardian UK ~ By Ranj Alaaldin

(NSI News Source Info) LONDON, UK - August 23, 2009: It was hailed as National Sovereignty Day – a day when Iraq was being handed back to Iraqis. But the US withdrawal from Iraqi towns and cities on 30 June has failed to live up to its expectations, and with devastating consequences for the Iraqi people. In this photo taken Friday, July 24, 2009, U.S. Army soldiers from D Co. , 252nd Combined Arms Battalion, 30th Brigade Combat and Iraqi army soldiers are seen before going in a patrol in a village south of Baghdad, Iraq. Out of the cities and letting the Iraqi security forces take the lead, U.S. troops are facing a new challenge: finding things to do. An escalation of attacks since that day, including a multitude of near-simultaneous attacks on Wednesday that killed at least 95 people and injured more than 560, suggest the Iraqi security forces are not yet able to combat the insurgent and terrorist threat independent of US supervision. What makes Wednesday's attacks – blamed on Sunni extremists – particularly significant is that they were carried out with an unusual level of sophistication in some of the most secure areas of Baghdad. Reports suggest the attackers had the backing of political actors high-up within the Iraqi government, something that becomes worryingly plausible when trying to comprehend how exactly a lorry packed with explosives was able to make its way through countless checkpoints and up to 30ft near a heavily guarded ministry. Such assertions, and the fact that militants are still able to hit heavily guarded targets, provides considerable cause for concern since it would suggest that the Sunni insurgency, usually contained in the volatile north in places like Mosul, is now gaining ground, able to extend its reach to, and cause havoc in, the generally more secure south. Complacency and negligence, like removing security barriers, will have made the attacks more fatal than usual. Despite all this, US troops are unlikely to return to the streets in Baghdad: first, because attacks of great magnitude, like those on Wednesday, do not form part of daily Iraqi life as they have done previously and, second, since Maliki – who called the withdrawal a "repulsion of the occupiers" – has engaged in too much nationalistic posturing to opt for what would be a politically disastrous and embarrassing retraction. However, US troops are returning to northern Iraq where Arab and Kurd confrontations along a 300-mile long swath of disputed territory could all too easily make the transition to civil war. It is in Mosul specifically that tensions are at their highest between the Kurds and the Arabs, represented essentially by a Ba'athist anti-Kurd grouping called al-Hadba, which took control of the province from the Kurds after it won the January provincial elections this year. The Kurds want to incorporate several areas in northern Mosul province, in accordance with Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, while al-Hadba, backed by exiled Ba'athists in Syria and Yemen accused of sponsoring the insurgency, fiercely oppose this. Political wrangling between the two has led to tit-for-tat accusations of terrorist attacks on civilians and al-Hadba's refusal to include members of other groups in the provincial council, in contrast to efforts made by the Kurds after the 2005 elections, which the Sunnis boycotted, but who were nevertheless offered seats on the council. To prevent all-out war, as they have done before, the US will act as a buffer between the two groups and stop the terrorists from capitalising on the tensions. But for how long? Kurd-Arab tensions in northern Iraq may not be resolved until Kurd-Arab reconciliation takes place in Baghdad. This, however, requires resolution of outstanding issues like the disputed territories that, in light of the recent decision to indefinitely postpone a nationwide census, is set to remain unresolved for some time. US troops may have also returned to northern Iraq as part of Maliki's electoral strategy, since it would have been more feasible to have kept them there in the first place. Maliki will need some sort of stability and security to return to Iraq as it heads closer to the national elections; but he will also advocate his nationalistic credentials and so cannot have a significant US presence in town come January. It is possible, therefore, that the PM may have US troops operating in significant numbers for up to two months to instil a sense of security in the electorate. He may even launch an audacious security operation. This would give him at least another two months to capitalise on what could be an acceptable degree of stability and credibly campaign on his usual security platform with only a minimal US presence. The January 2010 referendum on the Sofa agreement could also be utilised to bolster his nationalistic credentials. Having said that, it would be unfair to appraise Maliki's every move as part of a wider quest for power. Mosul, for example, might now have a more urgent need for a sizeable US force given that the insurgents have shown they can effectively strike at other parts of the country beyond their bases in the north. Juan Cole and Jonathan Steele retain some hope and advise that future attacks could be prevented if there is reconciliation with disgruntled Sunni Arabs. But what if the discontent among the Sunni Arabs, including the insurgency, is more to do with a refusal to accept that they no longer dominate the seats of power? Cole refers to this but fails to provide a remedy. As it stands, President Obama's promise to remove US troops over the next 12 months is optimistic, even reckless. The withdrawal should now be under review and altered to accommodate on-the-ground realities if the country is to be saved from falling into the hands of a potentially revitalised insurgency. It is highly likely that a huge contingent of US forces will remain in the north should such a US withdrawal materialise; perhaps it is time to reconsider the South-Korean model for Iraq. As Oliver August writes for the Times in Baghdad, the Americans are perceived in a more positive light "having gone from occupier to policeman" since the handover in June. In other words, having Americans around would not be so bad after all. The question is whether the Obama administration will continue to overlook Iraq in favour of the publicly "more acceptable" war in Afghanistan, a country of far less wealth, potential, and geopolitical importance.

DTN News: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Spends Final Day In Iraq Meeting Kurds

DTN News: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Spends Final Day In Iraq Meeting Kurds *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) BAGHDAD, Iraq - July 30, 2009: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates sounded an optimistic note about the possibility of speeding up U.S. troops withdrawals from Iraq, Wednesday, after meeting for a second day with top Iraqi leaders and talking with U.S. and Iraqi military commanders.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, walks to his plane with the top US commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno as he prepares to depart Baghdad to Irbil, in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, July 29, 2009. Gen. Ray Odierno identified the tension in northern Iraq as the number one driver of instability.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates painted a mostly upbeat picture of the situation in Iraq, indicating that it was possible that more U.S. troops could come home sooner than anticipated.

Gates' stressed that, in any case, he saw no cause for a slowdown in the pace of U.S. troops pullouts, but that any acceleration, would necessarily depend on an assessment of the situation by U.S. Commander Ray Odierno.

"I don't think there's anything in the cards for a slowdown. I think there's at least - and I'm not going into any specifics - but I think there's at least some chance of a modest acceleration [of the troop withdrawal timetable] But, because of the way General Odierno sees things going, that remains to be seen," he said.

Gates added that he didn't "want to put General Odierno into a corner, but that the general was examining "all the possibilities and he's very encouraged.

"Two U.S. brigades are due to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2009, but Mr. Gates indicated that an additional brigade may be withdrawn early if the situation warrants. The United States currently has about 130,000 troops in Iraq, and all are scheduled to pull out by 2011. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is greeted by President of the Kurdistan Regional Government Massoud Barzani during a brief visit to Erbil, Iraq, 29 Jul 2009. Gates spent his final hours in Iraqi Kurdistan, meeting with the President of the semi-autonomous region, Massoud Barzani.

Kurdish President Masoud Barazani talks to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates during his visit to Arbil, 310 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, July 29, 2009. Gates said on Wednesday the clock was ticking for Iraq's feuding Kurds and Arabs to settle differences before U.S. troops leave by 2012, which may be accelerated as security improves.

The secretary reportedly has been trying to mediate between Kurdish leaders and the central government in Baghdad, over a thorny territorial dispute over the oil-rich region of Kirkuk.Gates noted, Tuesday, that the United States was prepared to work to help resolve the oil and land disputes, which have Kurds and Arabs at loggerheads.

The Iraqi parliament, until now, has failed in attempts to cobble together a bill over oil revenues that would satisfy both Kurds and Arabs.

The issue of a new constitution for Kurdistan, which was removed from the ballot in weekend elections, triggered anxiety in both Washington and Baghdad. The draft constitution laid claim to oil and gas rights that are contested by the central government.

Iraq Watching Its Reflection In The Mirror

Iraq Watching Its Reflection In The Mirror (NSI News Source Info) September 3, 2008: Last month, 830 Iraqi civilians were killed or wounded by terrorist activity. That's an 80 percent reduction from last year. But there are still thousands of Iraqis who are at war with their countrymen, and are willing to kill for the cause (which could be anything from the return of Saddam's Baath Party to power, to the establishment of a Sunni or Shia religious dictatorship.) That murderous mentality is not unique to this time or place, it is endemic. For centuries, the Turks kept order, mostly with the real threat of violent retribution against any group that misbehaved. The Turks allowed local legal systems to operate, but what is now Iraq was an area where tribal councils and religious courts provided what passed for a justice system. When the Turks departed after 1918, many disputes, long suppressed, were now played out with great violence. That is still going on, and it will be 5-10 more years before Iraq has a judicial system that can even hope to deal with these disputes. September 2, 2008: The provincial elections that were supposed to take place next month, have been cancelled, and rescheduled for sometime next Summer. Not a good sign. The current elected officials are stealing all they can get away with, and many Iraqis know it, and are eager to vote the thieves out of office. This is particularly true at the provincial level, where the theft is more up close and personal. September 1, 2008: Iraqi security forces took over responsibility for Anbar Province. The Iraqis are now responsible for security in 11 of the nations 18 provinces. Anbar is basically western Iraq, and is mostly desert. It has long been occupied, rather sparsely, by Sunni Arab tribes. These were an independent minded people, and even Saddam used more carrot than stick when dealing with them. Thus when Saddam was overthrown, the Anbar tribes sheltered Islamic terrorists for several years, but have now seen the error of their ways. August 30, 2008: Although hundreds of Shia Arabs openly pledged to continue fighting Americans, most Mahdi Army fighters appear to be putting their weapons away and giving up armed confrontations and other actions that could lead to fighting. The basic problem the Mahdi Army faces is that the towns and neighborhoods they pledged to protect from Sunni Arab terrorists are now patrolled by Shia Arab soldiers and police. American troops are rarely seen, and most Shia Iraqis like the way things have developed. If the Mahdi Army continued its armed confrontations, it would lose even more support. So Sadr saw that it was either disarm or become irrelevant. August 29, 2008: Relations with Kuwait continue to be tense. Not because Iraq still insists that Kuwait is the wayward 19th province, but because Kuwait has unleashed lawyers to force payment of reparations for damage done by Iraqi troops during the 1990 invasion. Iraq doesn't want to pay, even though Saddam, on behalf of the government, agreed to. So Kuwait has lawyers enforcing that agreement by getting foreign courts to turn over to Kuwait goods that Iraq has bought, but have not yet shipped. This has resulted in court orders in Britain and Canada, giving Kuwait ownership of over a billion dollars worth of Iraqi commercial aircraft and other goods. The Kuwaitis know they can be as mean as they want to be, because the Iraqis aren't strong enough to threaten any military action, and Kuwait is protected by a permanent U.S. troop presence (mainly support units for Iraq operations, and a logistics unit maintaining equipment that might be needed for any future war in the region.) Inside Kuwait, the American presence is popular, as are the legal efforts to collect the reparations from Iraq. August 28, 2008: Speaking from exile in Iran, Shia leader Moqtada al Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia to halt all combat operations, and to shift to non-violent protests. Government soldiers and police had, earlier this year, defeated and scattered Mahdi Army units, so Sadr's order was a recognition of a new reality. Sadr is completing his religious studies in Iran, and avoiding assassination by any followers unhappy with his lack of aggressiveness. August 27, 2008: So far this year, the U.S. has released 11,000 of the Iraqis it had picked up as terrorism suspects. Over the years, the U.S. developed interrogation and screening procedures that enables them to release people safely (only about one percent are picked up again as a terrorist suspect.) August 26, 2008: In the north, a suicide bomb hit a police recruiting center, killing 28 and wounding 45. The terrorists are making their last stand in Diyala province and around Mosul. Preventing the police from establishing control is essential if the terrorists are to survive up there. As has long been the case, the terrorists only survive if they can terrorize the police into inactivity. The Iraqis are still short of experienced, competent and reliable police commanders. And not many with all those qualities are willing to risk their lives establishing an effective police presence in the north. August 25, 2008: The government ordered a brigade of 2,000 Kurdish troops out of Diyala province. Some 90 percent of the population there is Sunni Moslem, but the largest minority, about 7 percent, are Kurds. The Kurds do not trust the Shia government of the province, and the largely Shia security forces, to adequately protect the Kurds there. But the Kurds followed orders, and later complained to journalists about it.