Agence France-Presse,
Washington: The United States may provide Turkey with information enabling its armed forces to strike Kurdish rebels based in Iraq, the White House said Tuesday, downplaying talk of joint military operations.
Asked about the prospects for US-Turkish cooperation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels, spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment directly but suggested Washington might help Ankara another way.
“I am not aware of any American support for an airstrike … but actionable intelligence is something that we can provide,” she said.
US President George W. Bush urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Turkish President Abdullah Gul “to exercise restraint, for them to communicate and to cooperate because we do not want to see additional violence in that region,” said Perino.
“That said, I would refer you to the Multi-National Forces in Iraq to see what sort of support that they can provide,” she told reporters.
The US State Department said Tuesday it was hunting for a diplomatic resolution to tensions on Turkey's border with Iraq, after a new report raised the possibility of US-Turkish strikes on Kurdish rebels.
“We're working to resolve diplomatically what is a very difficult problem,” department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, adding: “We do not believe that unilateral Turkish actions are the way to resolve this.”
In a telephone call Monday with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, US President George W. Bush had offered support for Turkish efforts to counter deadly attacks by the PKK.
US officials have refused to elaborate on the nature of the cooperation, but the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that Bush had told Gul that US officials were seriously looking into options beyond diplomacy.
US officials have considered launching cruise missile against PKK targets, but air strikes using manned aircraft were an easier option, one unidentified official told the Tribune.
