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U.S. MILITARY STARTED GIVING TURKEY MORE INTELLIGENCE ON PKK REBELS
PanARMENIAN.Net
01.11.2007 14:32 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. military has started giving more
intelligence - "lots of intelligence" - to Turkey to help it against
Kurdish rebels staging cross-border attacks from their hiding places
in neighboring Iraq, the Defense Department said Wednesday.
Turkey has complained for months about what it has said is a lack
of U.S. support against the rebels from the Kurdistan Workers'
Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK. And Ankara has threatened
a full-scale ground attack into northern Iraq if the U.S. and Iraqi
officials don't do something about the rebels.
"We have given them more and more intelligence as a result of the
recent concerns," said Defense Department Press Secretary Geoff
Morrell.
"There has been an increased level of intelligence sharing as a
result of this," he told Pentagon reporters Wednesday. He did not
say specifically when the increase started.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested last week that air strikes
or major ground assaults by U.S., Turkish, or other forces would not
help much because not enough is known about where the rebels are at
a given time.
At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said that when President
George W. Bush meets on Monday with Turkey's Prime Minister Recip
Tayyip Erdogan, the president will say that the United States wants
the Iraqis and the Turks to be able to have continued dialogue about
the PKK problem.
"We expect the Iraqis to step up and make sure that they are doing
everything they can to eradicate the PKK," Perino said Wednesday.
"Turkey has a right to defend its people, it has a right to look
for its soldiers, and we are asking Turkey, as well, to exercise
restraint and to limit its exercises to the PKK," he said, The
Associated Press reported.
PanARMENIAN.Net
01.11.2007 14:32 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. military has started giving more
intelligence - "lots of intelligence" - to Turkey to help it against
Kurdish rebels staging cross-border attacks from their hiding places
in neighboring Iraq, the Defense Department said Wednesday.
Turkey has complained for months about what it has said is a lack
of U.S. support against the rebels from the Kurdistan Workers'
Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK. And Ankara has threatened
a full-scale ground attack into northern Iraq if the U.S. and Iraqi
officials don't do something about the rebels.
"We have given them more and more intelligence as a result of the
recent concerns," said Defense Department Press Secretary Geoff
Morrell.
"There has been an increased level of intelligence sharing as a
result of this," he told Pentagon reporters Wednesday. He did not
say specifically when the increase started.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested last week that air strikes
or major ground assaults by U.S., Turkish, or other forces would not
help much because not enough is known about where the rebels are at
a given time.
At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said that when President
George W. Bush meets on Monday with Turkey's Prime Minister Recip
Tayyip Erdogan, the president will say that the United States wants
the Iraqis and the Turks to be able to have continued dialogue about
the PKK problem.
"We expect the Iraqis to step up and make sure that they are doing
everything they can to eradicate the PKK," Perino said Wednesday.
"Turkey has a right to defend its people, it has a right to look
for its soldiers, and we are asking Turkey, as well, to exercise
restraint and to limit its exercises to the PKK," he said, The
Associated Press reported.