Turkey to exclude Kurd refugees

TURKEY plans to send its forces up to 12 miles into northern Iraq to deal with any flood of refugees, but will only move if a crisis develops, the Turkish foreign minister said yesterday.

The statement by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul follows intense US pressure on Turkey not to send its forces unilaterally into northern Iraq.

Washington fears that Turkish forces could end up clashing with local Iraqi Kurdish fighters or engaging in friendly fire accidents with US forces.