Gov?’t, MNF responsible for Turkish incursions

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: A media advisor from the Kurdistan’s regional parliament on Wednesday said that the Iraqi government and the coalition forces will be “morally responsible” for any possible Turkish military incursion into the region’s territories. “The Turkish parliament may extend the authorization offered to Turkish forces in this regard for an additional year,” Tareq Johar told Aswar al-Iraq. “Kurdistan’s parliament will have a specific stance in case the authorization is extended,” He said. In the worst single attack on the military in a year, gunmen of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Friday, October 3 rd 2008, raided a military outpost in a region in southeast Turkey bordering Iraq. Twenty soldiers were wounded and two more are still missing. The Turkish chief of staffs said the attack was helped with heavy weapons from northern Iraq (Kurdistan region). Chief of Kurdistan’s presidential office Fuad Hussein said his regional government did not provide help to PKK fighters, stressing the regional government condemned the attack. NATO-member Turkey has attacked PKK bases in northern Iraq several times in the past 12 months but has confined itself to shelling and air strikes since a brief land offensive in February, which Ankara cut short under U.S. pressure. Washington and the EU, which Ankara hopes to join, are concerned that prolonged Turkish military operations inside Iraq could further destabilize Iraq and the wider region. On October 17, 2008, the Turkish Parliament unanimously approved a memorandum forwarded by the government to give the thumbs up to the Turkish army to hunt down members of the PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, in northern Iraq. Only 19 out of a total 555 legislators in the Turkish Parliament voted against the proposal. The Turkish Parliament made the decision after PKK fighters on the Turkish-Iraqi border areas waged armed attacks that killed 15 Turkish soldiers. MH (S) / SS 1