Turks pressing U.S. to combat Kurdish rebels

[WillyT]

<snip>

Turkey's war with Kurdish rebels threatens to become a whole new headache for the U.S. military in Iraq.

The rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey and who have in the past fought for a Kurdish homeland straddling Turkey-Iraqi border, have spurned Turkey's offer of amnesty and are threatening to end their four-year unilateral cease-fire on Monday unless Turkish soldiers stop attacking them.

That may spell not only the possibility of instability in southeastern Turkey but also in northern Iraq, where an estimated 5,000 rebels who fled a Turkish onslaught in the 1990s are hiding out in mountain villages and caves.

Having supported the American war on terrorism, led the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and cooperated in the hunt for al-Qaida operatives, Turkey feels entitled to U.S. support in fighting the rebels.

But the thinly stretched U.S. military would have a hard time against experienced fighters in remote mountain hideouts.

<snip>

Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/08/30/international1311EDT0546.DTL

Can you say 'stretched thin', of course, I knew ya could!

:shrug:

[realFedUp]

1. and the big ole US loan to Turkey was for.....

more arms against the rebels?

I think I've seen this movie before....

[NNN0LHI]

2. I don't get it? I know Kurds can fight like hell...

...but have they been known not to be very smart or something? Another Bush screwed them but good. Why would they have thought things would be different with this Bush?

Don

[lindashaw]

3. I don't think they do expect anything from this Bush.

The Kurds know when it's in their interest to make a move. And this is what the Turkish Parliament has feared from the beginning. Britain is the one who set the boundary that split the Kurds between Turkey and Iraq. But I don't see the Brits able to solve this now. Bloodshed is probably inevitable. Who can blame Turkey for not wanting a civil war within its borders, yet who can blame the Kurds for wanting their country back? I can't.