U.S. practicing a balancing act on Kurdish question

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cautioned Tuesday against any action that could destabilize Iraq after Turkey sent about 300 troops across the border in pursuit of Kurdish separatist guerrillas.

The one-day incursion began hours before Rice arrived in Kirkuk on the latest high-profile attempt to reignite Iraq’s stalled reconciliation process after a sharp downturn in violence.

U.S. officials have touted a 60% drop in attacks nationwide since the U.S. military completed a 28,500-troop buildup in June.

The United States is in the midst of a delicate balancing act between two close allies: the Turkish government and the Kurdish regional authorities in northern Iraq, where Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas often hide in between attacks on targets in southern Turkey.

The U.S. considers the PKK a terrorist organization. During a visit this month, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte said Washington shared Turkey’s goal of ending PKK activities in Iraq “once and for all.” And Turkish officials have said that the United States is supplying intelligence to assist in their attacks on the militant group.

At the same time, U.S. officials do not want any steps taken that could upset stability in Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdistan region, an island of relative tranquillity and economic growth.

Rice reiterated her position Tuesday that the U.S., Iraq and Turkey share a “common interest in stopping the activities of the PKK.”

But she said circumstances demanded “an overall, comprehensive approach to this problem.”

“No one should do anything which threatens to destabilize the north,” she told reporters in Baghdad.

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani refused to fly to Baghdad to meet Rice, citing U.S. support for limited incursions by Turkish forces fighting the PKK.

In the latest case, Kurdish officials said Turkish troops penetrated about 1 1/2 miles into Iraqi territory overnight, moving through rugged mountains near the Iranian border used by PKK rebels. Wire reports quoted the Turkish Defense Ministry as saying that its troops responded to a group of rebels spotted trying to infiltrate Turkey and dealt them a “heavy blow.”

A news agency linked to the PKK reported that the rebels ambushed the Turkish troops, killing eight of them and injuring many more. It made no reference to PKK casualties.

Jabbar Yawir, deputy regional minister in charge of the peshmerga security forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, confirmed that clashes had occurred but said he had no information on casualties. Shortly after nightfall, the Turkish forces withdrew to their side of the border, he said.

Yawir characterized the incursion as “limited” and noted that the fighting took place in a remote region, far from any civilian population. But he warned that “if the Turkish forces penetrate to safe areas, where the Kurdish villages are located, then the Kurdistan region will defend itself.”

Turkish news reports quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying, “Our army is doing what it has to do right now.”

“We do not have any negative attitude towards Iraq’s territorial integrity, and we do not have any negative attitude towards the civilian citizens and our friends in Iraq,” he told reporters in Ankara, the capital. “However, they are terrorists and our enemy, and those who are in the camps there are threatening our national unity.”

Turkey has insisted on its right to pursue the rebels, and in its most serious air assault in years, its military jets bombed several villages Sunday in northern Iraq, killing at least one civilian and injuring several others.

Iraqi officials say they weren’t notified in advance about Sunday’s attack and have formally protested to the Turkish government about the civilian casualties.

“We believe any unilateral actions to destabilize the situation will harm Iraq’s interests and Turkish interests at the same time,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said at a news conference with Rice on Tuesday. “But at the same time we fully understand and appreciate the legitimate security concerns Turkey has over the PKK terrorist activities against them.”

Rice sidestepped a question about whether the U.S. had received advance notice of Tuesday’s incursion. U.S. officials have acknowledged that they were informed of Turkey’s plans Sunday, but Rice emphasized that the attack was Ankara’s decision.

Rice’s first stop Tuesday was Kirkuk, an oil-rich city about 150 miles north of Baghdad that remains a tinderbox for Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Kurds want to incorporate the city into their largely autonomous region, but the idea has met resistance from the city’s Sunni Arabs, whom Saddam Hussein had encouraged to settle there. A referendum on the issue has been delayed until next year.

Rice’s visit was intended to highlight a recent agreement under which Sunni Arabs ended a yearlong boycott of the provincial council in exchange for government posts. The city’s ethnic Turkmens are still refusing to participate in the council.

U.S. officials have credited their troop buildup with helping to bring violence in Iraq down to its lowest level since 2003, the first year of the war. The decision of anti-U.S. Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr to freeze the activities of his militia and a rebellion by thousands of Sunni tribesmen against the extremists they once backed have also been key factors in the downturn, which Rice said had created a window in which political reconciliation needed to take place.

“We all understand that democracy is hard and that it takes time,” she said. “But it is also the case that when people elect leaders, they expect them to make very strong efforts to move forward.”

Zebari acknowledged, “We need a political and legislative surge to augment and strengthen these gains.”

Despite the progress, deadly attacks continue on a daily basis.

Police said a suicide bomber detonated the explosives strapped to his waist in a cafe in Attarah, a Shiite village about five miles north of Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, killing 16 people and injuring 28 others. Insurgents fleeing the troop buildup in Baghdad are believed to have established sanctuaries in the province, according to U.S. intelligence.

Another suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint in Baqubah, killing two people and injuring 12 others, police said.

In Baghdad, four people were killed and seven injured when a car bomb exploded at downtown Nasr Square, police said. At least eight others were found shot to death, five of them execution-style.

U.S.-led forces detained seven suspects during raids early Tuesday targeting Sunni insurgents in Baiji, Mosul and east of Samarra, the military said. A fugitive Shiite militant was captured with 11 other suspects in the Aziziya area, southeast of Baghdad.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

Special correspondents Asso Ahmed in Irbil and Yesim Borg in Ankara and special correspondents in Kirkuk and Baghdad contributed to this report.