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Turkish Force of 250,000 Set for Kurds

[New York Sun] Eli Lake - Ankara, Washington, and Baghdad all rushed Wednesday to deny an AP dispatch that the Turks had begun an invasion of northern Iraq in pursuit of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a group listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department. Nonetheless, the director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Soner Cagaptay, estimates there are now 250,000 soldiers, most of whom have gathered in the last four weeks, massed at the Qandil mountain range on the border with northern Iraq. Those troops include heavy artillery and tanks, the most significant troop buildup by the Turks since they nearly invaded Syria in 1998 while accusing Damascus of harboring PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
2007-06-07 01:00:00
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