U.S. Sending 4,000 Troops to Aid Kurdish Relief in Turkey : Refugees: Defense Secretary Cheney says combat forces won’t be sent into Iraq and defends Administration from charges that it isn’t doing enough.

Helicopters and 4,000 U.S. troops will be sent to Turkey to reinforce the American relief operation for Kurdish refugees streaming into Turkey since their revolts were crushed by Iraq, U.S. military spokesmen in Europe said Friday.

The reinforcements will almost double the number of U.S. military personnel involved in the operation in Turkey to more than 8,000, a U.S. European Command statement said.

But Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said the Bush Administration has no intention of sending U.S. combat troops into northern Iraq to aid refugees fleeing Saddam Hussein’s forces.

“We cannot guarantee the safety of people around the world who live under regimes that from time to time violate their human rights, and we’re not in a position to be able to guarantee the safety of people inside Iraq who live under Saddam Hussein’s rule,” Cheney told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.

President Bush has come under growing criticism from members of Congress who contend that U.S. policy has allowed the slaughter and starvation of Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq despite the U.S. declaration that the area should be out of bounds for Iraqi military forces.

The Bush Administration has cautioned the Iraqis not to interfere with the international humanitarian effort to airlift supplies to the refugees, and in particular has warned against any use of helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft in the region.

A Pentagon source said officials have no evidence of any such Iraqi aircraft taking to the skies in the protected zone.

British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd also said Friday that Iraq will not be allowed to hamper humanitarian relief for Kurdish refugees and defended Britain’s proposal to establish havens for them in northern Iraq.

Cheney said U.S. forces have “de facto” control over the skies in that region, but he said any long-term solution to the fate of the refugees must be left up to the United Nations.

“The U.N. Security Council is an important forum for discussing these kinds of issues,” he said, but the more important short-term need is to alleviate the refugees’ suffering.

“I don’t think we ought to let our concern about how this is going to sort out eventually . . . interfere with the fact that we have to get food and medical supplies to these people as quickly as possible,” Cheney said.

At the United Nations, the five permanent members of the Security Council met to consider a British initiative to create safe zones in Iraq to protect Kurds and Shiite Muslims, but no action was expected soon.

The meeting was called by the British ambassador, Sir David Hanney, carrying out a mandate approved Monday in Luxembourg by the 12 heads of state of the European Community.

A member of the Security Council said no formal action was expected until U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar returns this week from Europe.

Secretary of Defense Cheney said he believes that the refugees “are safe from Iraqi prosecution where they are at” but have an “uncertain” future.

In any event, he said, “We have no intention of sending any combat forces into Iraq” to help the refugees.

He took issue with people who he said are calling for U.S. military involvement in the Iraqi civil strife, saying that it would mean entering “a quagmire.”

“If you’re going to try to topple Saddam Hussein, you have to go to Baghdad, and once you’ve got Baghdad, it’s not clear what you do with it,” he said.

Military action in liberating Kuwait was successful because the President authorized the use of overwhelming force, he said.

“We didn’t get in half-way, we didn’t put a toe in the water to see how it felt,” he said. “Those who suggest we ought to go a little way into Iraq . . . misread the situation.

“For us to get bogged down in the quagmire of an Iraqi civil war would be the height of foolishness,” Cheney said.

Earlier in the day, Cheney defended the Administration from charges that it wasn’t doing enough to help Kurds fleeing Iraq, and expressed doubts that refugee deaths had reached the thousands.

“I don’t know at this point that thousands of people are dying,” the secretary said after a speech at the National Press Club.

“That’s not consistent with reports that we’ve had. There unfortunately have been some deaths without question because of the weather, the general very difficult conditions which they’re now living in. But the international community is responding. We’ve got a major relief effort under way,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, Secretary of State James A. Baker III met with heads of international aid organizations to discuss relief efforts for more than 1 million Iraqi refugees in Turkey and Iran.

“The reason there is a problem with hundreds of thousands exposed to a tremendous degree of human suffering, and indeed to loss of life, is because of the brutal and repressive policies of the regime in power in Iraq and the brutal policies of Saddam Hussein,” Baker said.

Baker said Iran has granted permission for U.S. planes to deliver aid to its Iraqi refugees, according to a senior Red Cross official.

A spokesman for the United Nations said the World Food Program has received food donations or secured pledges for enough donations to feed all the Kurdish refugees in Iran and in Turkey for the next 30 days.

“While we have mobilized with great speed the food needed by the refugees, a huge effort is still required to get it to the border areas where is most urgently needed,” said the program’s executive director, James Ingram.

As part of the expanded U.S. relief effort, 15 Blackhawk and 20 Chinook helicopters are being deployed from bases in Germany and Italy as soon as possible, military spokesmen said.

In addition, three Mediterranean-based ships were due to arrive in Turkey on Sunday and would help with transport, medical support and water purification, the statement said.

In Ankara, meanwhile, the Parliament on Friday approved a landmark bill allowing limited use of the Kurdish language in Turkey.

Under legislation backed by President Turgut Ozal, Kurds now will be allowed to speak their language in unofficial settings and listen to Kurdish music. The Kurdish language, however, remains outlawed in schools and cannot be used in political settings, publications and broadcasting.

The bill is considered the first step toward recognizing the ethnic rights of the estimated 12 million Kurds in Turkey, which has a population of 57 million. Use of Kurdish in Turkey was banned by the former military government in 1983.