US Military Planning No Counter To Rebel Attacks Into Turkey, Commander Says

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON: The top U.S. military commander in northern Iraq said Friday he plans to do "absolutely nothing" to counter Kurdish rebels operating from the region and staging deadly cross-border attacks into Turkey.

Turkish leaders have threatened a large-scale offensive into Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi authorities don't stop the rebels.

Amid feverish diplomatic efforts to forestall an incursion, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said it is not the U.S. military's responsibility to act. He said that he has sent no additional U.S. troops to the area and he is not tracking hiding places or logistics activities of rebels from the Kurdish Workers Party or PKK.

He also has not seen Kurdish Iraqi authorities move against the rebels either, Mixon told Pentagon reporters by videoconference from a U.S. base near Tikrit in northern Iraq.

"I have not seen any overt action ... But those are the types of activities that are managed and coordinated at higher levels than my own," he said.

Mixon did his best in a half-hour news conference to rebuff the idea that the U.S. has any military role to play in the spiraling crisis between Turkey and Iraq.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/26/america/NA-GEN-US-Iraq-Turkey.php

Maybe those strike plans for Iran aren't routine after all?

The U.S. military just signed the death warrants of innocent Kurds who will be caught in the crossfire between the PKK (who'll hide out with the civilian population, something the U.S. accuses al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah of doing) and Turkey.

Another black eye for the U.S. of A.