July 6, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 5,1424

ISTANBUL, July 5: Turkey on Saturday said it was contemplating retaliation after US forces in Iraq detained at least 11 Turkish soldiers on suspicion of fomenting an attack on a Kurdish governor, the NTV news channel said.

The NTV added that the Turkish army was evaluating a number of measures which could be taken if its soldiers were not immediately released.

Three officials and eight non-commissioned officers were arrested on Friday in Sulaymaniyah, fiefdom of the Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Hurriyet newspaper reported.

The arrests were carried out on the grounds that “certain Turks were planning to commit an attack on the governor of Kirkuk”, Hurriyet said.

About 100 US soldiers stormed the local offices of the Turkish special forces after cutting the telephone lines. The 11 soldiers and six employees were taken to the nearby city of Kirkurk, the daily said.

A statement issued by the foreign ministry said 12 soldiers had been detained.

Ankara could react by increasing its military presence in the region, closing its airspace to US planes flying missions in and out of Iraq, or terminating US access to the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey, NTV said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted furiously to the US raid, and was reported saying: “This is a repugnant incident that should never have happened.”

“We cannot accept this,” Mr Erdogan protested, according to Anatolia news agency, condemning the United States for “behaviour unworthy of two allied countries in a coalition”.

The Habur border post, the sole checkpoint between Turkey and Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, was shut early Saturday in an apparent reaction to the US raid, NTV said.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said however that post was not closed, only that traffic had only slowed down, Anatolia reported.

Gul also said that a high-ranking delegation was headed to Sulaymaniyah.

Offical complaints were fast in coming, from Turkish government and military officials.

Erdogan said Gul had discussed the arrests with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had assured him that the soldiers were safe and that he would do what he could to have them freed.

The head of the Turkish army chief of staff General Hilmi Ozkok had also reportedly informed US General James Jones, the supreme commander of allied forces in Europe, of Friday night’s incident.

Turkish officers have been calling their US counterparts to let them know that the situation is “completely unacceptable” and “scandalous”, NTV said.

The news channel reported that 12 other people including local staff and Kurdish fighters were also arrested by the US forces.

Turkish media speculated that the arrests were a clear indication of American unease about Turkey’s military presence in the region.

The two US-allied Iraqi Kurdish groups controlling northern Iraq — Talabani’s PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), headed by Massoud Barzani — have kept control of much of the region and safeguarded the autonomy they have enjoyed since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

But Turkey is wary of potential Kurdish desires for full independence, which could spark similar aims among its own Kurdish population, and has deployed troops on the Iraq side of the border.

The NTV website said Washington wants Turkey to “close the information offices of its special forces in large towns” in northern Iraq such as Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaymaniyah, and withdraw the members of its special forces.

Washington has asked Ankara to provide a contingent of about 1,500 men for peacekeeping purposes in Iraq, which US-led troops have occupied since ousting president Saddam Hussein.

Vatan newspaper said Saturday that Gul would give a definitive answer on the number of Turkish troops during a planned visit to Washington later this month. —AFP