Reports of Turkish Incursions into Iraq

Today, there were several reports of Turkish military incursions into northern Iraqi Kurdistan to attack PKK guerrillas.

The reports were denied by relevant government officials in Iraq, Turkey, and the United States. Its only sources appear to have been anonymous senior Turkish military officials. However, reports were repeatedly made throughout the day, and indicated that hundreds of Turkish soldiers had raided the country in "hot pursuit" of Kurdish terrorists.

Whether true or not, tensions in Turkey over attacks by Kurdish terrorists based in Iraq have been very high, and as many as 250,000 Turkish troops have been massed just across the border from Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkey has frequently threatened to act in Iraq, but not like this.

The United States has been pushing Iraqi Kurds to do something about the PKK's occupation of a slice of territory just across from Turkey. Turkey is trying very hard to insinuate, whether by raiding Iraq or by raising that possibility through the press, that a Turkish attack is likely if the PKK is not dealt with, and soon.

If Turkey was to invade Iraq and remain engaged militarily against the Kurds in northern Iraq, that would be a serious crisis in a region that has been a bright spot in an unpopular American war in Iraq. Seeing Turkish soldiers killed by Kurds, with little done by Americans -- a strong possibility in such a situation -- would harden Turkish public opinion against the United States, and harm an otherwise moderate officially secular Muslim state. In short, it would be a Middle East-wide disaster.