Turkey seeks authority to attack Kurds in Iraq

SIRNAK, Turkey – Turkey’s ruling party decided Tuesday to seek parliamentary approval for an offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, a move that could open a new front in the Iraq war and disrupt one of that nation’s few relatively peaceful areas.

The government did not say it had decided to launch such an attack, which could jeopardize Turkey’s ties with the United States. The U.S. warned against sending troops across the border and urged Turkey to work with Iraq’s government to quell the Turkish Kurd guerrillas.

“If they have a problem, they need to work together to resolve it, and I’m not sure that unilateral incursions are the way to go,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

In the past, Turkish troops have made small-scale “hot pursuit” raids into Iraq that officials say do not require Parliament’s approval. The last major incursion against the militant separatists operating out of Iraq’s Kurdish region was in 1997.

There are widespread fears that a Turkish offensive would destabilize Iraq’s Kurdish area, which has largely escaped the violence and political turmoil afflicting regions dominated by Shiite Muslims and Sunni Arabs.

Iraqi Kurds, who run a virtual mini-state in Iraq’s north, have vowed to defend their borders. A spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish regional government, Jamal Abdullah, urged Turkey on Tuesday to drop the idea of a military attack.

Turkey’s decision to seek a parliamentary go-ahead was made during a three-hour meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and officials from his governing Justice and Development Party, said a leading member of the party who was at the meeting.

The party wanted the measure to pass “as soon as possible” and would try to present it to Parliament today, the lawmaker said.