Iraq demands Turkish withdrawal
Middle East Desk Report

BAGHDAD—The Iraqi government demanded for the first time that Turkey immediately withdraw from northern Iraq, warning Tuesday it feared the ongoing incursion could lead to clashes with the official forces of the semiautonomous Kurdish region.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the operation would only end “once its goal has been reached.” “The international community has understood well Turkey’s need to fight terrorist elements,” Erdogan said in a weekly address to ruling party lawmakers. “Everyone has begun to understand well Turkey’s rightful cause.”
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq in about a decade was a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. “The Iraqi Cabinet has denounced the Turkish army’s incursion,” al-Dabbagh said after the government met to discuss the issue. “The Cabinet calls on Turkey to withdraw its troops immediately and stop the military intervention.”
Al-Dabbagh warned that tensions could escalate if the Kurdish military forces known as peshmerga were drawn into the fight. “We want good relations with Turkey and Turkey should understand that the situation is dangerous and could be made worse by any military mistake that could prompt clashes between the peshmerga and Turkish troops,” al-Dabbagh said. “Then the military intervention might be widened and civilians might be endangered and infrastructure damaged.”
Turkey has assured the Iraqi government and the U.S. military that the operation would be limited to attacks on rebels. But the Kurds have expressed concern that civilians could be caught in the crossfire. The Kurdish parliament met Tuesday in a special session and unanimously approved a measure authorizing the peshmerga to defend themselves and the Kurdish region if they were attacked by Turkish troops.
It also called on the Turkish government for compensation for material losses sustained as a result of the incursion, according to Kurdish lawmaker Sardar Harki. Erdogan said the Turkish military was “destroying all terrorist elements on its path of advance,” but that, “civilian infrastructure is not being damaged.”
A Turkish delegation will visit Baghdad on Wednesday to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, both Kurds, as well as other top Iraqi officials, al-Dabbagh said. Turkish officials confirmed that they were sending a diplomatic delegation to Iraq. Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported that Turkish commandos were at least 15 miles inside Iraq, close to a main guerrilla base in the Zap region. The newspaper said without citing a source that helicopters transported elite units to shut off escape routes south of the Qandil mountain range, 60 miles from the frontier between Iraq and Turkey.
Earlier Turkish media reports had put Turkish troops nine miles inside northern Iraq. The dispatch of units by air to Qandil would be a bold move in line with Turkish military doctrine that highly mobile, special forces can counter the guerrillas in difficult terrain more effectively than a conventional ground force.
Turkish media reports have said that thousands of troops are inside Iraq. Turkey launched the incursion into northern Iraq on Thursday against separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The PKK wants autonomy for the predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey and rebels have carried out attacks in Turkey from bases in Kurdish Iraq. The conflict started in 1984 and has killed up to 40,000 people.
Qandil is a prime target for the Turkish military, which has already launched air strikes there. The PKK’s senior leadership is believed to be based there, although some reports indicate that many guerrillas may have fled the area in anticipation of an attack.