Top Turkish officials discuss situation in Northern Iraq

Turkey’s top military and political leaders today met to discuss Kurdish moves in two key cities in northern Iraq.

Ankara has threatened to send its forces into the region if Iraqi Kurds keep control of Mosul and Kirkuk.

Iraqi Kurdish leaders have said they will resist any Turkish military moves and Washington fears a Turkish intervention could undermine its war efforts in the north by provoking Turkish-Iraqi Kurdish clashes.

Iraqi Kurdish fighters today entered the commercial hub of Mosul, a day after seizing the strategic oil city of Kirkuk.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has assured Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul that US forces will replace the Kurdish fighters in Kirkuk and invited Turkey to send military observers to monitor the situation.

The observers were expected to reach Kirkuk by this afternoon, Turkish media reported.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a key Iraqi Kurdish group, promised yesterday that its forces would leave Kirkuk by the end of today.

“We are waiting for the arrival of U.S. paratroopers,” PUK representative Bahros Galali told private NTV television Friday. “We will then gradually leave.”

Turkey has repeatedly said it will not accept Iraqi Kurdish control of Kirkuk or Mosul, fearing it could encourage Iraqi Kurds to form their own state.

That, Ankara says, could inspire Kurdish rebels in south-east Turkey, who fought for autonomy for 15 years in a conflict that claimed the lives of 37,000 people.