- LONDON (AFP) - Kurdish troops
inside northern Iraq were in a tense stand-off with apparently hostile
Turkish forces late Saturday after Ankara deployed tanks and commandos
at least 15 miles (24 kilometres) south of its border with Iraq, the Sunday
Telegraph reported.
-
- Kurdish troops at a garrison in the small town of Vamerni
watched as Turkish forces with tanks and armoured personnel carriers prepared
for the arrival of reinforcements, said Telegraph journalist Damien McElroy
in a report from the scene.
-
- "We were told to expect the Turkish troops to arrive,"
the paper quoted First Lieutenant Mohammed Tahir as saying.
-
- "They are here, but we have not got any relationship
with them. There are no orders to stop them coming here."
-
- In a statement Saturday, the Turkish army denied sending
troops to northern Iraq, but asserted that its army was ready to intervene
in a Kurdish-held enclave there despite opposition from the United States
and European allies.
|
