U.S., Turkey Mend Rift Over Soldiers’ Arrests

The government released a statement Tuesday saying it and the United States regretted the capture of 11 Turkish special forces soldiers in northern Iraq in early July.

The United States said it had yet to approve the statement, signed by U.S. and Turkish generals, but expected this to occur soon. “It’s no big deal. These things happen,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

A U.S.-Turkish committee was set up last week to investigate the surprise July 4 raid in which U.S. troops detained the Turkish soldiers in the city of Sulaymaniyah.

The Americans took the Turks prisoner, handcuffed them, hooded them and flew them to Baghdad for interrogation. They were released more than two days later.

Turkish-U.S. ties had already been strained since March, when Turkey rejected a U.S. request to play host to 60,000 American troops for the war in Iraq. Many Turks were outraged by the detention and said the soldiers were humiliated.

The statement said both sides “expressed sorrow about the incident between the two allies and the treatment Turkish soldiers went through under detention.”

“Both sides agreed on speedily sharing every kind of information

The statement was released by the Turkish chief of staff’s office on behalf of the Turkish-American Joint Research Group, which is led by Turkish and U.S. generals.

“The conclusion that has emerged is this: A huge mistake was made,” Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said of the detentions.

He said Turkish and U.S. officials had agreed to establish more committees to prevent future spats.

Gen. John Abizaid, who succeeds Gen. Tommy Franks as the U.S. commander in Iraq, is scheduled to visit Turkey later in the week, Turkish officials have said.

U.S. officials alleged that the Turkish special forces were planning to assassinate an Iraqi Kurdish official. Turkey denied such a plot.

Diplomatic sources said one of those detained was a colonel whom U.S. or British forces had already expelled from Iraq twice for “suspicious activities.”

The incident underlined the two countries’ conflicting strategic interests in Iraq. Turkey is concerned by Iraqi Kurds’ growing influence there, but Washington has been working closely with Kurdish groups.

Turkey has long maintained a military presence in northern Iraq to pursue Kurdish rebels who seek autonomy in Turkey and have taken up bases in the area.