AF providing intel for strikes on Kurd rebels
By Patrick Winn - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 13, 2007 6:21:59 EST
If Turkey strikes Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as planned, the U.S. Air Force is likely to play a subdued or perhaps covert role, experts say. In fact, it’s already providing intel.
Turkish leaders have clamored for attacks on Kurdish nationalist rebels — guerrilla-style fighters known as the “PKK” — since they began crossing into Turkey in October to carry out shoot-and-run attacks. The rebels have killed more than 40 Turkish soldiers. This has placed American political and military decision-makers — the Kurds’ de facto guardians — in a tricky position. Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurd region and Turkey, which share a mountainous border and a long-simmering territory dispute, are both vital U.S. allies.
Turkey is a NATO partner, a partner in stabilizing war-scarred Afghanistan and home to Incirlik Air Base, near the Mediterranean shore. The northwestern corner of Iraq, where the Kurds have been semiautonomous since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, is the country’s most stable and America-friendly region, especially after the Kurds suffered genocide at the hands of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Full story
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/11/airforce_kurds_airstrikes_071112w/
I'm interested in this but I just don't know enough about the big picture to make comments. Reading a few of the other post I still feel I can't commit to one side or the other. The Kurds have been our best allies in Iraq and feel it's wrong not supporting them. Turkey has been a good allied as well and have a long history of doing so, so not supporting seems wrong as well. How could so many people that lived basically in the mapped area meaning the Kurds, and not have there own country? Can I assume France and England when splitting up this region I think around WW-I time or in that general time period didn't provide the Kurds with there own lands? If somebody can help thanks in advance.
By Patrick Winn - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 13, 2007 6:21:59 EST
If Turkey strikes Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as planned, the U.S. Air Force is likely to play a subdued or perhaps covert role, experts say. In fact, it’s already providing intel.
Turkish leaders have clamored for attacks on Kurdish nationalist rebels — guerrilla-style fighters known as the “PKK” — since they began crossing into Turkey in October to carry out shoot-and-run attacks. The rebels have killed more than 40 Turkish soldiers. This has placed American political and military decision-makers — the Kurds’ de facto guardians — in a tricky position. Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurd region and Turkey, which share a mountainous border and a long-simmering territory dispute, are both vital U.S. allies.
Turkey is a NATO partner, a partner in stabilizing war-scarred Afghanistan and home to Incirlik Air Base, near the Mediterranean shore. The northwestern corner of Iraq, where the Kurds have been semiautonomous since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, is the country’s most stable and America-friendly region, especially after the Kurds suffered genocide at the hands of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Full story
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/11/airforce_kurds_airstrikes_071112w/
I'm interested in this but I just don't know enough about the big picture to make comments. Reading a few of the other post I still feel I can't commit to one side or the other. The Kurds have been our best allies in Iraq and feel it's wrong not supporting them. Turkey has been a good allied as well and have a long history of doing so, so not supporting seems wrong as well. How could so many people that lived basically in the mapped area meaning the Kurds, and not have there own country? Can I assume France and England when splitting up this region I think around WW-I time or in that general time period didn't provide the Kurds with there own lands? If somebody can help thanks in advance.