Turkish troops attack Kurdish rebels in Iraq

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — Iraqi Kurdish officials on Friday ordered 6,000 Kurdish militiamen to take up new positions in Iraq’s Dohuk province as hundreds of Turkish 3troops crossed the border in what Turkey said was an attack on Kurdish rebels who had sought shelter there.

How many Turkish troops had entered Iraq was uncertain.

American military officials in Baghdad estimated the number at 1,000, but Kurdish rebels said the incursion involved 10,000 troops.

Commanders of two Kurdish militia organizations confirmed that they had been ordered to move north in force and that their men were armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, PKC machine guns, which can be used as light anti-aircraft weapons, and assault rifles.

But the militia didn’t intervene in fighting between the Turks and rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, commonly known as the PKK