US Holds Turkish SF who tried to dick around in Iraq...

[MKSheppard]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 92,00.html

The Turks Enter Iraq
A Turkish Special Forces team is caught by U.S. troops in Kurdistan
By MICHAEL WARE

Thursday, Apr. 24, 2003

Even as the U.S. works to stabilize a postwar Iraq, Turkey is setting out to create a footprint of its own in the Kurdish areas of the country. In the days after U.S. forces captured Saddam's powerbase in Tikrit, a dozen Turkish Special Forces troops were dispatched south from Turkey. Their target: the northern oil city of Kirkuk, now controlled by the U.S. 173rd Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade. Using the pretext of accompanying humanitarian aid the elite soldiers passed through the northern city of Arbil on Tuesday. They wore civilian clothes, their vehicles lagging behind a legitimate aid convoy. They'd hoped to pass unnoticed. But at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kirkuk they ran into trouble. "We were waiting for them," says a U.S. paratroop officer.

The Turkish Special Forces team put up no resistance though a mean arsenal was discovered in their cars, including a variety of AK-47s, M4s, grenades, body armor and night vision goggles. "They did not come here with a pure heart," says U.S. brigade commander Col. Bill Mayville. "Their objective is to create an environment that can be used by Turkey to send a large peacekeeping force into Kirkuk."

The presence of the Turkish soldiers highlights the increasing possibilities of instability in the region, which has a sizable Turkoman population that has clashed with the Kurdish majority since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. In the first days after Kirkuk fell to allied forces on April 10th, Turkoman families and political parties were attacked by bands of Kurdish looters. In a dramatic display on April 11, an enraged group of Turkoman men dumped the body of a small boy, perhaps seven or eight years old, in front of the Daralsalum Hotel where international journalists had taken rooms. He'd been shot through the waist at close range by a PK light machine gun. The 7.62mm round travelled up through his torso and exited through his skull, leaving a hollowed shell where his little head was supposed to be.

American commanders in the city believe the covert Turkish team was meant to inflame these kind of tensions. "These [Turkish] forces are tied in to Turkoman groups in the city," says Col Mayville. The 173rd Airborne commanders suspect an amalgam of local Turkoman parties under the banner of the Iraqi Turkoman Front (ITF) were to be used by the covert team to wreak havoc. "In this first convoy was real aid. They'd do this two or three times then money or weapons would have started flowing in. We suspect their role was to strongarm or discipline the members of the ITF. What they're doing is crystallizing the ITF along the Turkish agenda," says Col. Mayville.

By Wednesday U.S. paratroopers were holding 23 people associated with the Turkish Special Forces team. Some were drivers and aid workers. But a dozen of them, says Col. Mayville, were identified as soldiers. "We held them for a night, brought them in, fed them and watched their security. After all," he says wryly, "they are our allies." Early Thursday morning American troops escorted the Turkish commandos back over the border.

[Sea Skimmer]

I am not impressed by the skills of Turkish special forces

[Howedar]

Well once they were caught, they did the right thing. Fighting the US forces would not be an improvement to their situation.

[HemlockGrey]

Somebody got fired over this.

[Wicked Pilot]

Man, these guys suck. But then again, if they go by air, they will be caught by AWACS and be intercepted after landing. If they go off road, they'll be caught by the JSTARS and hit by the A-10s. And if they go by foot or horse, they'll be at a huge military disadvantage.

[Sokar]

Good Grief, a platoon of greenhorn's rightout of boot and a wet behind the ears Lt. could have pulled off a better job than that.......and the Turks call these guys 'Special Forces", the "Special Ed Forces" is more like it, shit they should have tried to infiltrate in a short-bus, the troops would have waved them right through........

[Vympel]

Well ... 'special' is one way to describe these schmucks.

I'm sure heads are rolling in Ankara.

[Companion Cube]

Turkey trying to start shit? Why am I not surprised...

[Colonel Olrik]

If they think stunts like this will make them enter the E.U sooner, they might start reconsidering their strategy.

[Cosmic Average]

They're trying to win France over.

[Crown]

If they think stunts like this will make them enter the E.U sooner, they might start reconsidering their strategy.

Turkey will never join the EU while Cyprus is divided. That is a fact that Turks are starting to wake up to. As much as they want to squirm and scream 'it isn't fair!' they just realised that the national veto on enlargement, and the criteria for entering, means that until they withdraw their occupation force they will always remain outside.

[Pu-239]

Good Grief, a platoon of greenhorn's rightout of boot and a wet behind the ears Lt. could have pulled off a better job than that.......and the Turks call these guys 'Special Forces", the "Special Ed Forces" is more like it, shit they should have tried to infiltrate in a short-bus, the troops would have waved them right through........

I resent this.


I used to ride the short bus...

[Sea Skimmer]

I resent this.


I used to ride the short bus...

So did I. In fact the whole short Bus thing is basically a myth, I live two blocks from a school for retarded children and they exclusively use modified vans for transport. Short Buses are generally used simply to ferry normal kids to private schools that happen to be within 10 miles of their districts school.

[Sokar]

Sorry if I offened, it was just a jest.