ANKARA Ñ Turkey has bolstered its defenses along the border with
Iraq.
Turkish officials said the Defense Ministry has launched an effort to
detect and halt attempts by Iraqi-sponsored insurgents to enter Turkey. They
said Iraq has been aiding and encouraging the Kurdish Workers Party to
resume attacks against Turkish interests.
The ministry is overseeing the first stage of the project, estimated at
$35 million, to install sensors along the Iraqi border, the officials said.
They said the sensors were installed along five points along the
Iraqi-Turkish frontier.
The Ankara-based Hurriyet daily said the sensors are also meant to
detect biological, chemical and nuclear material that Kurdish insurgents
attempt to bring into Turkey. The sensors will be established along all
border points by September, the daily said.
Turkey has been bolstering its defenses amid plans by the United States
to attack the regime of President Saddam Hussein. Officials said this
includes the deployment of additional troops and police in the mountainous
frontier that separates Iraq and Turkey.
In London, the Iraqi National Congress said it will convene more than
200 former Iraqi officers in a conference in Washington to plan the
overthrow of Saddam. The INC, which receives nearly $1 million a month from
the United States, said it will discuss the conference with the Bush
administration and State Department. The conference is being planned for
late March.
"We have a wide range of officers representing all Iraqi communities and
all strands of the Iraqi opposition," INC spokesman Sharif Ali Bin Al
Hussein said. "This will be the largest conference of officers in opposition
to Saddam's dictatorship ever held."
