Turkish Special Forces Attack PKK Inside Iraq

By Andrew Cochran

Just over a week after President Bush promised Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan aid in fighting PKK, Turkish special forces attacked across the border into Iraq. The limited action, apparently consisting of helicopter gunship raids on two villages, is a clear sign of more cross-border activity to come, as the army basically promised last week after the meeting. Reports after last week's meeting indicated that the U.S. would provide detailed intelligence which would enable the Turkish military to hit specific PKK targets, and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki publicly signaled his government's support for Turkish incursions. "The prime minister renewed the willingness of the Iraqi government to take steps to isolate the terrorist PKK, prevent any help reaching its members, chase and arrest them, and put them in front of the Iraqi judiciary because of their terrorist activities."

In the November 5 meeting with President Bush, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan “strongly urged that the United States work with leaders in Iraq to cut off money flows to the PKK.” Whether the PKK's international financial structure is vulnerable to conventional methods of designation by the U.S. Treasury Department and allies is a subject of discussion and some doubt in the counter-terrorism community.

My thanks to Timothy Thompson for his valuable contributions to this post and to our knowledge base on this issue.

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