Iraqi Turkmens yesterday denied that they were clashing with U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, saying Turkmens were not involved in fights over the weekend that have reportedly killed more than 15 people. "We have no dispute with U.S. forces and no reason to fight against them," a senior Turkmen official in Ankara said.
| "Are you nuts, we got enough problems with the Kurds" |
News reports said over the weekend that U.S. forces besieged the town, almost exclusively populated by Turkmens, after clashes with anti-U.S. forces spilled over to the area, leaving 13 Turkmens dead on Saturday and three more on Sunday. The reports also said that some 20,000 Turkmens have fled the town of 460,000 to escape the violence. "The information we have is that certain groups who fought against the Americans in Najaf and Fallujah fled to Tal Afar and that the Americans chased them, therefore carrying the clashes into the town," Ahmet Muratli, head of the Ankara representation of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, the leading Iraqi Turkmen organization, told the Turkish Daily News.
The U.S. military said Saturday that a U.S. helicopter was hit in Tal Afar and was forced to make an emergency landing amid the fighting, leaving the aircraft's two crew members wounded. A U.S. Stryker Brigade vehicle securing the helicopter's site later came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades, the military said. Troops fought back, killing two attackers. Local sources said the people who had clashed with the Americans in Tal Afar were a group of Shiite Turkmens that had joined forces loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in fierce clashes last month in Najaf. After the U.S. forces stamped out Sadr resistance in Najaf, they fled to their hometown, Tal Afar, chased by U.S. forces. "The Americans wanted to finish off the job they had started in Najaf," the sources said.
| Followed them home, did we? |
|