Turkey Puts Boots on the Ground in Iraq

Turkey Puts Boots on the Ground in Iraq
Associated Press | December 18, 2007

KIRKUK, Iraq - The Turkish army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation on Dec 18, Kurdish officials said. A Turkish official said the troops were still in Iraq by midmorning.

To the south in Kirkuk, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to the city that Iraq's Kurds call their Jerusalem, an oil-rich territory claimed by many.

The troops crossed into an area near the border with Iran, about 75 miles north of the city of Irbil, said Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for Kurdistan's Peshmerga security forces.

About 300 Turkish troops crossed the border at 3 a.m., said Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the regional Kurdistan government. He said the region was a deserted mountainous frontier area.

A Turkish government official, speaking in Ankara on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that around 300 Turkish soldiers penetrated into northern Iraq.


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