THE Bush Administration is considering air strikes, including the use of cruise missiles, against the Kurdish rebel group PKK in northern Iraq in an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of Iraq to fight the rebels.US President George Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by telephone on Monday in an effort to ease the crisis. According to an official familiar with the conversation, Mr Bush assured Mr Gul that the US was looking seriously at options beyond diplomacy to stop the attacks coming from Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. "It's not Kumbaya time any more — just talking about trilateral talks is not going to be enough," the official said. "Something has to be done."
The use of US soldiers on the ground to root out the PKK would be the last resort, but the United States would be willing to launch air strikes on PKK targets and had discussed using cruise missiles, US officials said. But air strikes using piloted aircraft might be an easier option because the US controlled the air space over Iraq.
The talk of a joint operation was confirmed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he flew to Britain. "We may conduct a joint operation with the United States against the PKK in northern Iraq Â… We expect to work jointly, just as we do in Afghanistan," Mr Erdogan told reporters on the plane.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan arrived in Baghdad yesterday for emergency talks. He warned that his country would not hesitate to attack the rebels over the border if efforts at finding a peaceful solution failed.
Another option being considered by US officials would be to persuade the Kurdistan Regional Government, which runs northern Iraq, to order its Peshmerga forces to form a cordon preventing the movement of the PKK beyond its mountain camps. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday to request his co-operation in dealing with the PKK.
"In the past, there has been reluctance to engage in direct US military action against the PKK, either through air strikes or some kind of Special Forces action," said the official familiar with the Bush-Gul conversation. "But the red line was always, if the Turks were going to come over the border, it could be so destabilising that it might be less risky for us to do something ourselves. Now the Turks are at the end of their rope, and our risk calculus is changing."
An ambush at the weekend by 200 PKK guerillas left 12 Turkish soldiers dead and eight missing. The US, with Iraqi help, could also squeeze the flow of supplies and funds for the PKK coming across the border or through the airport in Erbil, the largest city in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to US and Kurdish officials.
The Bush Administration, which has an intelligence-sharing operation with Turkey, could also lean on the Kurdistan Regional Government to provide more of its own intelligence to the Turks, experts said. The Turkish leadership is under heavy pressure from its public, with thousands of demonstrators shouting anti-PKK slogans in Istanbul after the weekend ambush.
The US-Turkey alliance is particularly important to the Bush Administration in its conduct of the Iraq war. About 70 per cent of the US military's air cargo headed to Iraq is shipped through a US air base in southern Turkey.
Analysts say the PKK, fighting for Kurdish self-rule since 1984, would like to incite Turkey to attack its bases in Iraq to help fuel its movement. Last week Turkey's parliament authorised the Government to send troops across the Iraqi border at any time in pursuit of the PKK. The Kurdistan Regional Government warned that air strikes by the US or the Turks could inflame nationalist sentiments among the millions of Kurds who live in Turkey. "If the US starts bombing PKK camps in the north, Turkey will be ablaze tomorrow," said Qubad Talabany, spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington.