Turkey-Iraq border tension grows

BBC:

"Turkey-Iraq border tension grows

Tension is rising on Turkey's border with Iraq amid speculation Ankara may be about to launch an incursion to tackle Kurdish rebels.

Turkey is continuing a military build up and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to rule out action.

Turkey blames rebels of the PKK group for a recent suicide bombing in Ankara and a landmine attack on troops.
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Last week two US F-16 fighter jets based in Iraq made an incursion into Turkish airspace that Turkish media said was an attempt to intimidate Ankara into refraining from any action inside Iraq.

The US said the violation of the airspace was "unintended" and was under investigation.

Mr Erdogan warned Washington there should be no repeat.

In an interview with the private NTV news channel he said Iraq the US and Turkey should carry out a joint operation against the PKK."

Mizgin is your go-to place for related news - and has been blogging on this all week.

Here's the AP this morning:

"Turkey has sent large contingents of reinforcement soldiers, tanks and armored personnel carriers to its border with Iraq as debate heated up over whether to stage a cross-border offensive to hit Kurdish rebel bases."

rewritten 9 hours later:

"Turkey has reinforced its border with Iraq with large contingents of soldiers, tanks and armored personnel carriers as it urged the U.S. to crackdown on Kurkish rebel bases there and debated staging a cross-border offensive."

The latter seems to be a little softer...

Mizgin also has this disconcerting news :

"The Turkish cargo train with serial number 55555, which was attacked and derailed by HPG forces (PKK’s armed wing) on May 25, was transporting 300 rockets from Iran to Syria
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Turkish intelligence service MIT is now investigating the matter. The final destination of the rockets is believed to have been the Lebanese Hezbollah or Palestinian organizations according to Turkish media."

Update:
mizgin in the comments:

"Thanks for posting a reference to the news of the Turkish-assisted rocket transport from Iran to Syria, Lukery, but the news is not originally mine. It comes from a comrade, the owner of DozaMe.

The Hurriyet article referenced at DozaMe makes the claim that the rockets were American-made.

We had a report of Turkey doing the same thing during the Lebanon war last summer, during which time they were using Turkish Red Crescent vehicles to transport the arms. Turkey had engaged in similar activity in South Kurdistan beginning in April, 2003 and culminating in the famous "bagging" incident of a Turkish special team (which led to the movie--Kurtler Vadisi Irak).

The news of the transport of rockets with Turkey as go-between for Iran seems to be consistent with Sibel's information, don't you think?"

re the last point, I don't know enough about the details to know whether it dovetails into Sibel's case - but who knows, maybe it is arms-for-drugs again...