TENSIONS CONTINUE ALONG IRAQ-TURKEY BORDER
U.S. helps Turkey hit PKK in northern Iraq. The United States is providing Turkey with intelligence that has helped the Turkish military in a series of attacks this month against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, including Sunday's most recent attack. U.S. military personnel have set up a center for sharing intelligence in the Turkish capital. According to a senior administration official, the goal of the U.S. program is to identify the movements and activities of the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK). The United States is "essentially handing them their targets," one U.S. military official said. The Turkish military then decides whether to act on the information and notifies the United States, the official said. Sunday's attacks outraged Kurdish members of Iraq's leadership, who called the attack "a violation of Iraq's sovereignty." [Washington Post, 12/18/07]
Turkish forces make incursion into Iraq. According to Kurdish officials, the Turkish army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation on Tuesday. A Turkish official said the troops were still there by midmorning. Around 300 troops crossed into an area near the border with Iran, about 75 miles north of the city of Irbil. [AP, 12/18/07]
RICE VISITS IRAQ
Secretary of State visits Iraq's volatile north. According to U.S. officials, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will use her trip to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to encourage Iraqi leaders to seek political reconciliation. The oil-rich city of Kirkuk is home to a volatile mix of Kurds, Sunni and Shi'a Arabs and Turkmen. Analysts say the Bush administration is frustrated that political advances have not accompanied recent security gains. Many major divisive issues, such as a law to allocate the country's oil resources, have still not been resolved. [BBC, 12/18/07]
VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO RAGE
Truck bomb explodes at Mosul dam, while another bomb misses a U.S. convoy in Baghdad. A truck bomb parked on a bridge connecting two gates of the Mosul dam exploded Monday, killing a security officer. The attack was the latest reminder of militants' intent to undermine major infrastructure projects in Iraq, and highlighted the continued instability in the northern province of Nineveh. Reconstruction work on the damn has been one of the major projects undertaken by the U.S. However, U.S. engineers have expressed concern about the dam breaking, resulting in causing massive flooding and deaths. [LA Times, 12/18/07]
IRAQ DECIDES FUTURE OF LOCAL SECURITY FORCES
Iraqi government to take over plan to unite security groups. Iraq's Shi'a-dominated government has agreed to take over support of a U.S.-funded plan that has already organized thousands of Iraqis, including former insurgents, into local security groups. The U.S. government strongly supports the move. "It's now reassuring that the government of Iraq recognizes that this is a program that has worked in Anbar and is beginning to work elsewhere in the country," said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman. However, the new program poses threats. Iraq's Interior and Defense ministries have often had difficulty paying soldiers and police consistently and providing support for their forces. Meanwhile, Shi'a government officials remain suspicious of the nearly 60,000 Iraqis, mostly Sunnis, who have joined the groups. According to the U.S, military, Iraq's government will probably be ready to assume control of the security groups in the middle of next year. Iraq eventually wants to disband the local security groups and take 12,000 to 20,000 people into the Iraqi security forces. Until the Iraqis can take over, the U.S. military will keep paying the groups. [USA Today, 12/18/07]
Loading comments… 
