Turkey boosts troops at Iraqi border

By Paul de Bendern

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey's army has boosted troop levels in the restive southeast to more than 200,000, most of them stationed along the border with Iraq, security sources told Reuters on Friday.

The unusually large-scale buildup, which includes tanks, heavy artillery and aircraft, is part of a security crackdown on Kurdish rebels hiding in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, said the security sources, who declined to be named.

NATO member Turkey has refused to rule out a possible cross-border operation to crush up to 4,000 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels believed to be based in mountains in northern Iraq, despite opposition from the United States and Baghdad.

The military General Staff in Ankara was not immediately available for comment on the troop numbers.

Highlighting Turkey's security dilemma, army sources said two soldiers and two PKK rebels had been killed in eastern Turkey during military operations over the past two days.

Dozens of soldiers and paramilitary police have been killed in an escalation of violence in east and southeast Turkey in recent months.

Armed forces chief General Yasar Buyukanit has repeatedly urged the government to allow an incursion into neighbouring, mainly Kurdish, northern Iraq to crush PKK militants.

Earlier this week, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said the Turkish army had 140,000 soldiers along the Iraqi border as part of a "great mobilisation". He called for dialogue with Turkey to resolve the issue.

Washington, while classing the PKK as a terrorist group, fears any major operation by Turkey in northern Iraq could anger Iraqi Kurdish allies and stoke wider conflict in a relatively peaceful region of the war-torn country.

Iraq has previously said its security forces were badly stretched tackling unrelenting violence elsewhere, and did not have spare troops to send to the border region.

PRESSURE MOUNTING

The Turkish government has been reluctant to push for a cross-border operation because it fears such a move could rattle the economy ahead of parliamentary elections on July 22, sources close to the ruling AK Party say.

But amid public anger over the deaths, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has hinted parliament could be recalled to approve an operation.

Analysts say the tough talk by the armed forces and the government is partly driven by domestic politics amid rising nationalism in the country.

The armed forces usually boost troop levels in the mainly Kurdish southeast region in the spring when rebels cross the mountains into Turkey from Iraq to carry out attacks.