US vows calm Turkey as Kirkuk falls to Kurds

11.45am

ANKARA - Turkey expressed alarm over the seizure of the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk by Kurdish fighters on Thursday, sparking rapid pledges from Washington and the Kurds that the city would be in US hands.

The Kurdish takeover created the risk of a confrontation with Turkish troops that could disrupt US operations. Turkey has said it is ready to risk US fury by sending in its troops if it feels US-backed Kurds might use the oil centre's wealth to seek an independent state, rousing Turkey's own Kurds.

The Iraqi Kurds, trying to calm Turkish fears, denied they plan to use the confusion of postwar Iraq to try to carve out a state based on the northern oilfields and said they want a federal Iraq within existing borders.

More than 30,000 people died in southeast Turkey during the 1980s and 1990s after rebellious Turkish Kurds launched a campaign for an ethnic homeland there.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, speaking after Kurdish fighters poured into Kirkuk, said Turkey was ready to do "whatever is necessary" to safeguard its interests in the area.

But Gul appeared reassured by a subsequent telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Colin Powell who, he said, "gave his word new US forces will be sent to Kirkuk in a few hours to remove the peshmerga who have gone in there".

Gul said Powell's assurances meant there was "no need for tension" in northern Iraq, but added that Turkey would send military observers into the city soon -- a measure likely to be viewed with suspicion by Kurdish groups.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said US forces would control the city, a potentially fiery mix of Arabs, Kurds, Turkish speakers and Christians. The Pentagon announced US forces had entered Kirkuk but declined to say they had control.

Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani said his forces had moved into the city in response to an uprising there and said he had ordered them out.

"I have ordered all the peshmerga to leave the city by tomorrow morning," Talabani, head of one of two main Iraqi Kurdish factions, told the CNN Turk television channel by phone. "Not one will remain, but now we are waiting for the Americans to arrive."


Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice director for operations of the US military's Joint Staff, told a briefing at the Pentagon that US special forces were with Kurdish fighters from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) as they entered the city.

McChrystal said elements of the US Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade followed later, meeting minimal resistance.

He did not give specifics about the numbers of US troops on the ground in Kirkuk beyond saying that the first element of the 173rd to enter the city was "about a battalion-size force". That would mean a bit more than 500 troops.

The opportunity to take the city came when Iraqi regular army forces in the north pulled back, McChrystal said.

McChrystal and chief Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke were asked who actually controls Kirkuk.

"We tend to stay away from words like 'control' for the obvious reasons and because these situations do remain fluid often for quite some time. But looking at it from the other perspective, the Iraqi regime no longer controls that town," Clarke said.

McChrystal added, "We have United States forces in Kirkuk. We are talking very closely with the Turkish forces as well, as we have been throughout this, as they are a coalition partner."

But McChrystal also said he did not think the Kurdish forces "are taking orders" from US forces. "I think they are working with them. I certainly wouldn't want to give the impression we are commanding and controlling all of the forces in the north, the Kurdish forces," McChrystal added.

Asked when the 173rd or other US military forces might seize control of the northern oil fields, McChrystal said, "We have begun to reinforce the 173rd from outside by air with some heavy forces. As for their movement to the oil fields, that's clearly a future operation. They respond to opportunities and to the enemy situation on the ground."

McChrystal said US commander General Tommy Franks retained the option of moving the powerful and high-tech US 4th Infantry Division, now in Kuwait, into northern Iraq.

Turkish financial markets sagged on fears a Turkish military intervention would dash hopes of a multi-billion dollar US aid package to ease the shock of war on Turkey's frail economy.

The Kurdish guerrillas swept into Kirkuk with no immediate sign of any US military presence -- a worrying signal for Ankara that the Kurds might be working outside US control.

Reporters in the city said some of the Kurds had smashed into government offices and looted whatever they could carry. Others celebrated or joined in efforts to destroy symbols of President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party rule.

Kirkuk and Mosul are south of the enclave run by Kurds outside Baghdad's control since the 1991 Gulf War. The Kurds say Kirkuk is historically theirs and that the Iraqi government has forced out Kurds and replaced them with Arabs over the years.

Turkish speakers in Iraq, backed by Ankara, also stake a claim.

Witnesses on the Turkish side of the border, in an area closed to all but military and local traffic, said there was no sign of unusual military movements.

The United States wanted to launch a major northern front in Iraq by sending some 60,000 troops across the southeastern border of its Nato ally, but Turkey's parliament voted in March against allowing the troops onto Turkish territory.

That refusal cost Turkey a US aid package of US$30 billion in grants and loan guarantees and relations turned sour.

Perversely, Turkey's refusal to give passage to US troops left Kurdish forces in a much stronger position in northern Iraq -- an area Ankara sees as crucial to its security.

The US Congress is now considering a US$1 billion ($1.84 billion) grant to Turkey, convertible into US$8.5b in loan guarantees.

Diplomats said that while there is no explicit linkage in the congressional draft bill between the aid and Turkey's role in northern Iraq, the package almost certainly depends on Turkey staying out of that area.

"I think you could say with some confidence neither Congress nor the White House would be inclined to put the billion dollars Turkey's way if Turkey sent its troops into northern Iraq without (US) agreement," a Western diplomat said.

A few thousand Turkish troops are already inside northern Iraq, and about 40,000 are massed along the border. The military has reserved the right to go in if it sees any danger of a Kurdish state forming that could re-ignite separatism in Turkey.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war