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Turkey OKs Strikes in Iraq

526-19 vote gives year-long permission to respond to Kurdish attacks

By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 17, 2007 10:40 AM CDT

(Newser) – The Turkish Parliament today authorized its prime minister to send the country's military into Iraq to combat Kurdish separatists who have been accused of raids on Turkish soil. The 526-19 vote gives year-long permission for military strikes across the border, CNN reports. With 60,000 Turkish troops amassed in the area and some shells fired into Iraq this weekend, Baghdad scrambled for a diplomatic solution and President Bush urged Turkey, again, not to send troops into Iraq.

Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki spoke to his Turkish counterpart today and sent a vice president to Ankara. Maliki pledged to “do whatever necessary together” to solve the problem, the Times reports. But Maliki’s offer to help to stop the Kurdish rebels was undercut by a top Iraqi military official, who told CNN that Baghdad won’t send troops to the border mountains—and that regional authorities should deal with the problem.

Turkish soldiers in an armored vehicle patrol on a road in the province of Sirnak, on the Turkish-Iraqi border, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. Turkey's Parliament on Wednesday was expected to approve a possible cross-border military incursion into northern Iraq to chase separatist Kurdish rebels despite international calls for...
Turkish soldiers in an armored vehicle patrol on a road in the province of Sirnak, on the Turkish-Iraqi border, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. Turkey's Parliament on Wednesday was expected...   (Associated Press)
Lecturers from the Istanbul Technical University, with the Haghia Triada Greek Orthodox church in the background, wave national flags during a protest against separatist Kurdish rebel attacks on civilians and Turkish army members in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. Turkey's Parliament began debating whether to approve a possible cross-border...
Lecturers from the Istanbul Technical University, with the Haghia Triada Greek Orthodox church in the background, wave national flags during a protest against separatist Kurdish rebel attacks on civilians...   (Associated Press)
Turkish soldiers in armored vehicles pause as they patrol on a road in the province of Sirnak, on the Turkish-Iraqi border, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. Turkey's Parliament on Wednesday was expected to approve a possible cross-border military incursion into northern Iraq to chase separatist Kurdish rebels despite international...
Turkish soldiers in armored vehicles pause as they patrol on a road in the province of Sirnak, on the Turkish-Iraqi border, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. Turkey's Parliament on Wednesday...   (Associated Press)
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