Iraq pledges to confront Kurdish rebels

The Iraqi government on Tuesday vowed to crack down on Kurdish rebels in a bid to avert a major incursion by Turkish forces into northern Iraq.

Iraqi officials issued their pledge during a visit by Turkey’s foreign minister to Baghdad as Turkish forces massed on the border of the semiautonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, where the Kurdish separatists have taken harbor between attacks on southern Turkey.

“We will all do anything to stop their terrorist activities threatening Iraq as well as Turkey,” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said after meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan. The senior diplomat traveled to Baghdad to demand that Iraq act against the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which Sunday killed 12 Turkish soldiers in an ambush that also left eight infantrymen missing, reportedly captured by the guerrilla forces.

Iraqi Kurdistan regional officials have said they do not back the PKK but have added that the group’s attacks are Turkey’s problem. They also say that Turkish officials will not sit down with them to discuss how to handle the problem.

The crisis has left the United States torn between supporting its North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally Turkey or risking the destabilization of the Kurdish-dominated provinces of Iraq, Irbil, Dahuk and Sulaymaniya, the most peaceful areas of the nation since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Turkish officials have said that American officials had persuaded them to hold off on a ground assault after the weekend ambush. Last week, Turkey’s parliament granted the government a mandate to launch strikes across the Iraqi border.

Iraqi national leaders appeared eager Tuesday to demonstrate their good faith and woo Turkey back from the brink. Maliki reiterated that the government would move to shut down the offices of the PKK in Iraq. The government ordered similar action last year.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, also announced the country’s intention to confront the PKK.

“We’ll not allow any party or any group, including the PKK, to poison our bilateral relations, and also I’ve assured the minister that the Iraqi government will actively help Turkey to overcome this menace,” the foreign minister said. He added that an Iraqi delegation was expected soon in Turkey. Zebari is expected to participate in the delegation, bringing a Kurdish voice to the talks.

Adil Barwari, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament’s national security and defense committee, said that U.S. airstrikes on PKK positions were probably a better option than a ground assault by Turkey. “In my opinion, an airstrike by the American forces, the Turkish forces or even the Iraqi forces would be the safest way, with the least possible casualties and even material losses,” Barwari said.

Another option would be a joint Iraqi-Turkish military operation against the PKK if the rebel movement ignored a deadline to leave Iraq.

For his part, Turkish Foreign Minister Babacan delivered a tough message to the Iraqis.

“We stated that Turkey and its people and society are on the edge of its patience and that Iraq’s territorial integrity is our basic principle,” he said upon his return from Baghdad. “They say they understand our determination. But we tell them that words, statements, are not enough. We need more than words.”

In London, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued to talk tough while pledging that his nation would not target any portion of Iraqi Kurdistan other than PKK bases. “The Turkish parliament issued a mandate to the Turkish government for an operation in northern Iraq. Let me sincerely underline here that any such effort would target only the PKK, because we have always worked side by side with the Iraqi people.”

Erdogan cautioned that his country was losing patience after more than a year of attempts to resolve the PKK issue with Iraq and the United States. “We waited for 14 months for this mechanism to bear fruit, and it did not, and we cannot wait forever for this mechanism to yield a result.”

In Washington, a leading State Department official signaled that the United States was also losing patience with Iraq’s Kurds.

David Satterfield, the State Department’s top Iraq advisor, called on the leaders of the Kurdish regional government to halt the movements of the PKK, and to cut off the support that sustains it in Iraq’s remote northern mountains.

“We are not pleased by the lack of [Kurdish] action undertaken against the PKK,” Satterfield said at a breakfast meeting with reporters. “They are inactive. They must become active.”

Satterfield’s comments signaled a change in tone for the Bush administration, which has long sounded a conciliatory note toward Kurdish regional officials.

Meanwhile, on Iraq’s border with Turkey, residents worried about their future.

“Because of the security situation and the shelling we can’t harvest our orchards. We are now caught between the flames of Turkey and PKK,” said Ahmed Mustafa, 70, who was standing by a crater left by a Turkish artillery shell. A nearby road was scarred by mortar rounds.

Some spots on the Iraqi side of the border were without a trace of fighters. In other locations, Turkish forces stared across the frontier into Iraq.

In PKK-controlled areas of Iraq, some residents expressed sympathy for the group, which Washington considers a terrorist organization. Merchants from the villages have apparently provided the PKK with weapons and ammunition.

Kareem Abdullah, 59, said, “We have to help the PKK with all we’ve got. They are Kurds . . . our own flesh and blood.”

In one location, six PKK fighters manned a checkpoint.

“We are not afraid from Turkey, we are ready. If they attack our bases then we will answer back,” said Hawri Botani, a 47-year-old fighter. “Turkey supports terror and they kill civilians. They want to come to Kurdistan to end the Kurdish experience.”

ned.parker@latimes.com

Special correspondent Ahmed reported from Dahuk and Times staff writer Parker from Baghdad. Staff writers Kim Murphy in London, Paul Richter in Washington and Tracy Wilkinson in Yuksekova, Turkey, contributed to this report.