Blue Star Chronicles

Turkish military vehicles carrying tanks to the border with Iraq.

Several thousand Turkish troops entered Iraq in tanks shortly after a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman reaffirmed that there was no intent on the part of the Turks to invade northern Iraq.

Several Turkish officials gave differing anonymous statements, ranging from that they were just chasing some Kurds back across the border, to it wasn’t a major offensive or there would have been tens of thousands of troops, to there were just a few hundred commandos backed by thousands of troops that stayed at the border.

The official word is that nothing happened. Via Forbes.

Turkey’s private NTV television quoted Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as saying reports of a cross-border operation were false.

“There is no such thing, no entry to another country. If such a thing happens, then we would announce it,” Gul said. “We are in a war with terror, we will do whatever is necessary to fight terrorism.”

Several military officials at the Pentagon said they have seen nothing Wednesday that would confirm the reports of Turkish troops crossing the border into Iraq.

In spite of the many contradicting reports, it appears that the Turks have conducted a reconnaissance-in-force. This is an army maneuver to check out the territory they are preparing to invade. It also is used to check out the response of the enemy to the initial forces.

If there is no response or a weak response, it will be followed by the very kind of invasion the Turks are denying they will do, tens of thousands of forces.

The network news mentioned briefly that there were reports of an incursion into the Kurdish territories of northern Iraq but that the Turkish government has reassured us that the reports are just not true. They then cut to a segment about the Princess Diana story. A couple of sentences telling us it just isn’t true and then cutting away to a celebrity story.

Okay. Why shouldn’t we believe the Turkish officials? It’s not like they’ve never lied to the rest of the world before ……

American Soldier on patrol in northern Iraq

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Jihad Watch says …..

Quick, call up the Organization of the Islamic Conference and ask them how they’d feel about a “land for peace” deal here. Would they get the irony?

I doubt it.

Captain’s Quarters also sees it as a reconnaissance in force…

If it isn’t a “major offensive,” it’s at least a reconaissance in force, and significant enough to cause considerable problems.