U.S. Helps Turkey Hit Rebel Kurds In IraqIntelligence Role Could Complicate DiplomacyBy Ann Scott Tyson and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 18, 2007; Page A01
The United States is providing Turkey with real-time
intelligence that has helped the Turkish military target a
series of attacks this month against Kurdish separatists
holed up in northern Iraq, including a large airstrike on
Sunday, according to Pentagon officials.
U.S. military personnel have set up a center for sharing
intelligence in Ankara, the Turkish capital, providing
imagery and other immediate information gathered from
U.S. aircraft and unmanned drones flying over the
separatists' mountain redoubts, the officials said. A
senior administration official said the goal of the U.S.
program is to identify the movements and activities of the
Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting to create
an autonomous enclave in Turkey.
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.
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