Turkey 'looking to move 12 miles into Iraq'

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 situation develops, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said today.

His comments followed intense US pressure on Turkey not to send its forces unilaterally into northern Iraq.

Washington fears Turkish forces could end up clashing with local Iraqi Kurdish fighters or sparking friendly fire incidents with US forces.

Gul said Turkey was determined to act to avoid any flood of refugees.

Following the 1991 Gulf War, hundreds of thousands of starving, freezing Iraqi Kurds fled Saddam Hussein’s forces for the Turkish border, creating a humanitarian disaster for Turkey.

Gul said Turkey was looking to create a 12 mile buffer zone on the border.

“We want to keep all of the refugees there. This is very clear,” he said in Ankara, the Turkish capital.

“This is not a populated area and this area ... is for security reasons,” Gul said. “If the need is there, this is our plan.”

When asked how many soldiers Turkey would send in, Gul said: “It depends on the need.”

Gul said Turkish and US officials were discussing Ankara’s plans.

US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was in Ankara today for talks with Turkish officials.

A senior US official said the goal of Khalilzad’s talks is to keep Turkish troops out of northern Iraq.

The official said Washington is offering to work to contain any refugee flow in order to keep Turkish forces out of the region.