ANKARA Ñ A CIA delegation began talks in Ankara on Tuesday with Turkish Foreign
Ministry and military intelligence officials.
Turkish government sources said the CIA wants Turkey to play a major
role in capturing northern Iraq and maintaining order in the Kurdish-and
Turkmen-populated areas.
The CIA plans focus on Turkish military help in capturing the northern
Iraqi cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, the sources said. The operation is meant
to include Kurdish forces friendly to Ankara.
The talks began amid rising tension in northern Iraq. Kurdish sources
reported that clashes have erupted between Turkish- and Iranian-backed
forces in the village of Zamak along the Iranian border. On Monday, the Al
Sulamaniyeh daily reported that three members of the Turkish-backed Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan as well as two fighters from the Iranian-backed Ansar
Islam were killed.
The CIA delegation is composed
of 25 officials and is led by deputy chief John McLaughlin.
PUK leader Jalal Talabani has arrived in Ankara for meetings with
senior Foreign Ministry and military officials. It was not clear whether
Talabani will also meet with the CIA delegation.
The CIA and Turkish intelligence have been cooperatng on widescale operations, and U.S.
intelligence agents are operating in northern Iraq. The CIA and the U.S.
military are refurbishing abandoned Iraqi airports near the
Turkish border, the sources said.
Turkey's military has opposed a U.S.-led war against Iraq. Ankara has
asked for a multi-billion compensation package that includes Turkish control
of the oil fields in northern Iraq.
The intelligence talks are also expected to discuss Turkey's
participation in the U.S.-led war against terrorism. The sources said the
CIA is expected to relay Russian complaints that Turkey has allowed Chechen
insurgents to operate from its territory.
In Washington, U.S. officials said the Bush administration has held
discussions with Turkey over sales of dual-use goods that could be employed
in Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction program. The officials said Iraq's
purchase of a huge number of chemical weapons antidote is believed to have
come from Turkey.
"I can say that we have talked to the Turks about procurements by Iraq,"
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "Obviously, Turkey shares
our concern about making sure that Iraq doesn't get anything that could
further a program of weapons of mass destruction or be possibly involved
with making
it easier for Iraq to use weapons of mass destruction, as they have before."
