Drudge is linking the story, and we’ve been trying to get more information on the situation, but as yet all we’ve heard from the military is that more information will be coming out soon and that “it appears this incident has been misreported.” We’ll see. The U.S. commanders in northern Iraq sure didn’t seem too concerned about the possibility of a Turkish incursion during their blogger conference call last week. But the Turks have been sending some not-so-subtle signals that the situation in Kurdistan had become intolerable from their perspective. And the recent handover of security in the region’s three provinces likely didn’t make the Turks any more comfortable with the situation there. In any case, we’ll keep you posted, but I just got off the phone with Bill Roggio, who says that if the Turks do move in “it’s unlikely to derail the Baghdad Security Plan…it’s an issue that will have to be dealt with, but it can be managed in the long-term…we know how to work out problems with the Turks.” Update: An MNF-I press release:
There are reports that a small force might have temporarily crossed the border in pursuit of PKK fighters, but there was certainly no large-scale incursion. Still, this seems like a let-that-be-a-lesson moment for the Coalition–crackdown on the PKK or the Turks will make us wish we had.
