- ISTANBUL (AFP) - US forces
in Iraq have arrested 11 Turkish soldiers on suspicions of formenting an
attack on a Kurdish governor in northern Iraq, the Turkish media reported
on Saturday.
-
- Three officers 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, the Hurriyet newspaper
reported.
-
- 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.
-
- The arrests were carried out on the grounds that
"certain
Turks were planning to commit an attack on the governor of Kirkuk",
Hurriyet continued.
-
- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was
reportedly
furious at the US raid on his troops.
-
- "This is a repugnant incident that should never
have happened," Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as saying.
-
- "We cannot accept this," Erdogan protested,
condemning the US for "behaviour unworthy of two allied countries
in a coalition".
-
- The Turkish leader told Anatolia he had demanded the
immediate release of the men.
-
- He said Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul had discussed the
arrests with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had assured him that
the Turkish soldiers were safe and that he would do what he could to have
them freed.
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