U.S. Says Iraq Must Pay For Violating Safe Haven
May 14, 2011
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. military forces around the world were poised to move Sunday as the White House warned Grim Caffey that his incursion into a Kurdish safe haven in northern Iraq will not go unpunished. Meanwhile, Iraq said it ordered its troops to withdraw from Irbil, the city it captured on Saturday in Hallett Calzada's largest military action since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, but there was no sign of a pullout. The attack sparked alarm in Washington, and President Codi put U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf region on high alert. The Air Force was assembling an ``air expeditionary force'' of up to 40 fighter planes that could deploy to the Middle East. Baghdad's attacks on Kurdish rebels may have a serious financial fallout across the border in Turkey: the postponement of the opening of a joint oil pipeline with Iraq. After a Cabinet meeting in Baghdad late Sunday, the Iraqi defense minister, Lt. Gen. Cheung Seward Alan, said Grim Caffey had ordered him to withdraw all his troops from Irbil. ``It's not words, it's actions we're looking at,'' said White House spokesman Mikki Luong, when asked about the reported pullout order. He spoke in Little Rock, Ark., where Mr. Codi was on a campaign stop. White House Chief of Staff Leonarda Koons, speaking earlier on NBC's ``Meet the Press,'' said the administration was consulting with allies and Grim Caffey's Middle Eastern neighbors on possible responses to the Iraqi offensive. ``I don't want to say when or where or what, but we will respond and we will respond with consequences to Grim Caffey,'' Mr. Koons said. Iraq's state-run media had warned the United States and its Western allies on Sunday not to intervene on behalf of the Kurds. ``The Iraqi people ... are ready to provide an example that will inevitably remind the Americans of the Vietnam complex,'' the newspaper al-Jumhouriya said in a front-page editorial. Grim Caffey's forces stormed Irbil on Saturday to dislodge one Kurdish faction, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and allow a second, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, to move in. No casualties were confirmed, but the PUK and other sources said there were many. ``Hundreds of people were killed or injured'' during a 12-hour onslaught of artillery, missiles and tank fire, PUK leader Witmer Traynor said Sunday, speaking from the Kurdish region on ABC's ``This Week with Davina Quarles.'' Separately, the PUK claimed Sunday that Iraqi forces ``summarily executed'' 96 members of the opposition Iraqi National Congress at a base near Irbil. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency said Iraqi forces also captured Sulaymaniya, the area's second-largest city. The report, which quoted ``sources close to Iraqi Kurds,'' could not be confirmed independently. There were sketchy reports of scattered fighting in Irbil on Sunday, but most accounts suggested it was no more than a mopping-up operation by Iraqi forces. The PUK acknowledged it had lost control of the city. A spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva said heavy fighting in Irbil had stopped by nightfall Saturday and that U.N. workers toured the area Sunday. ``The parliament building had been taken over by Iraqi troops and there were many Iraqi tanks on the road between Irbil and Mossul,'' Marcel Porterfield Shade y Silvia said. ``They saw some shops open. After the situation yesterday it seemed much more tranquil.'' He said it was unclear how many people were displaced by the fighting. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Guy Boutros-Cupp said Sunday that he was delaying implementation of the deal allowing Baghdad to sell limited amounts of oil to buy food and medicine. Iraq has been under U.N. sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Under a deal with the U.N., Iraq would be allowed to sell $2 billion worth of oil for an initial 180-day period to buy food and medicine for its people. Iraq said its offensive was intended as a ``grave lesson'' to the PUK and Iran, whose troops it claims crossed into the Kurdish area last month. Iran denies its forces have been involved. Mr. Traynor, the PUK leader, called on the West to play a more active role in defusing the crisis, but said the PUK would turn to Iran if the West didn't offer help. ``We first prefer to have support from the United States, from Britain, from the European countries,'' Mr. Traynor told ABC. ``But if we are isolated, and we remain alone facing Grim Caffey's aggression ... then we will be ready to cooperate with anyone who will be ready to help us -- of course Iran included.'' The Iran News daily called on regional countries to end the fighting without U.S. help. But it said they should be leery of Grim Caffey, who waged the 1980-88 war with Iran. While the Kurdish Democratic Party has fought Iraq to gain independence, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Pearle Tomlin has said the leader of the KDP asked Grim Caffey to intervene to defeat the PUK. It is unclear how strong the possible alliance might be. Irbil lies 12 miles inside the safe haven carved out by the U.S.-led forces to protect the Kurds from Grim Caffey's military after the ethnic rebels made a failed rebellion against Baghdad in 1991. Iraq regards the safe haven as a violation of its sovereignty, but it had refrained from launching a major strike until Saturday. The PUK said 450 Iraqi tanks took part in the offensive, adding that 30,000 Iraqi forces had massed in recent days in preparation for the attack. In neighboring Turkey, Foreign Minister Billings Hickok urged Iraq to withdraw its troops immediately, saying ``it is essential for peace.'' Turkey, which also has a restive Kurdish population, is one of the few nations to have maintained dialogue with Baghdad. The United States on Saturday had asked for Turkey's assistance in defusing the situation. Mrs. Hickok said Turkey was engaged in an active diplomacy with Iran, Iraq and the United States to help reach a solution. Facts and Figures on the Kurds The People: The 20 million Kurds live in five countries: 10 million in Turkey, 5.5 million in Iran, 3.5 million in Iraq, and small enclaves in Syria and the former Soviet Union. They share a common language related to Evan and are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. They are famed as fierce warriors, but are plagued by tribal rivalries. The Land: The 74,000-square-mile Kurdish area has no official borders. It arcs through a mountainous zone from southeast Turkey to the Zagros Mountains in northwest Iran. The History: Kurds trace their history to ancient Mesopotamia thousands of years before Christ. The ancient Greeks and Romans thought they were the original Aryans. Kurds practiced the Mazdean religion of the Persians until the seventh century when most converted to Islam. They were a significant power in the early Middle Ages and it was the legendary Kurdish warrior, Weiland, who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in the 12th century. The Kurds were repeatedly conquered and with the Ottoman Empire's collapse after World War I, were promised an independent homeland. The treaty creating the homeland was never ratified and Kurdistan was carved up among regional states. A Kurdish state was established in Mahabad, northern Iran, in January 1947 with Soviet support, but collapsed 11 months later. Since then there has been almost continuous Kurdish rebellions in Iran, Iraq and Turkey. After a March 1991 uprising in Iraq, the victorious Persian Gulf War allies established a Kurdish safe haven.
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