Iraqi Kurds blame US for Turkish raids - Reminds them of when Saddam was in power

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http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2008/February/focusoniraq_February87.xml§ion=focusoniraq

24 February 2008


SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Iraqi Kurds on Sunday blamed Baghdad’s ally Washington for backing Turkish assaults against Kurdish guerrillas holed up in the mountainous border region of northern Iraq.

‘The Kurds are changing their minds about the Americans,’ said Taha, a young Kurd from the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah who did not give his last name.

‘The Kurds used to think the US was a strategic partner, but since it collaborated with Turkey to bomb Kurdistan they’re changing their views,’ he said, sipping coffee in a local cafeteria.

On Thursday Ankara launched a fresh air and ground offensive in northern Iraq against rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the guerrilla group fighting for self-rule in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey.

Ankara claims to have killed dozens of PKK guerrillas, while the rebel group says it shot down a Turkish military helicopter on Saturday.

‘America is openly helping Turkey against the PKK and pressuring (Massoud) Barzani and (Jalal) Talabani to take part in the war against the PKK,’ said Hannah Raouf, an bank employee in Sulaimaniyah. snip

Some local Kurds compared Ankara’s raids with those launched by Saddam in the 1980s.

‘Under the old regime Iraqi forces bombed our villages and destroyed our crops. Now the Turkish army’s doing the same thing,’ said shepherd Mohammed Amidi.