- ANKARA -- A CIA delegation
began talks in Ankara on Tuesday with Turkish Foreign Ministry and military
intelligence officials.
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- Turkish government sources said the CIA wants Turkey
to play a major role in capturing northern Iraq and maintaining order in
the Kurdish-and Turkmen-populated areas.
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- The CIA plans focus on Turkish military help in capturing
the northern Iraqi cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, the sources said. The operation
is meant to include Kurdish forces friendly to Ankara.
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- The talks began amid rising tension in northern Iraq.
Kurdish sources reported that clashes have erupted between Turkish- and
Iranian-backed forces in the village of Zamak along the Iranian border.
On Monday, the Al Sulamaniyeh daily reported that three members of the
Turkish-backed Patriotic Union of Kurdistan as well as two fighters from
the Iranian-backed Ansar Islam were killed.
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- The CIA delegation is composed of 25 officials and is
led by deputy chief John McLaughlin.
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- PUK leader Jalal Talabani has arrived in Ankara for meetings
with senior Foreign Ministry and military officials. It was not clear whether
Talabani will also meet with the CIA delegation.
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- The CIA and Turkish intelligence have been cooperatng
on widescale operations, and U.S. intelligence agents are operating in
northern Iraq. The CIA and the U.S. military are refurbishing abandoned
Iraqi airports near the Turkish border, the sources said.
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- Turkey's military has opposed a U.S.-led war against
Iraq. Ankara has asked for a multi-billion compensation package that includes
Turkish control of the oil fields in northern Iraq.
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- The intelligence talks are also expected to discuss Turkey's
participation in the U.S.-led war against terrorism. The sources said the
CIA is expected to relay Russian complaints that Turkey has allowed Chechen
insurgents to operate from its territory.
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- In Washington, U.S. officials said the Bush administration
has held discussions with Turkey over sales of dual-use goods that could
be employed in Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction program. The officials
said Iraq's purchase of a huge number of chemical weapons antidote is believed
to have come from Turkey.
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- "I can say that we have talked to the Turks about
procurements by Iraq," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
said. "Obviously, Turkey shares our concern about making sure that
Iraq doesn't get anything that could further a program of weapons of mass
destruction or be possibly involved with making it easier for Iraq to use
weapons of mass destruction, as they have before."
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