US Defence Secretary Robert Gates held talks here Sunday with his Turkish counterpart as tension mounted between the two nations over Ankara’s plans for possible attacks on Kurdish rebels in Iraq. Gates urged Turkey to obtain precise information on the location of the separatist rebels before launching any military incursion into northern Iraq.
“The key is to develop intelligence to enable us to find these people… that has to precede any action by anybody,” he told reporters after meeting here with Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul.
“Lacking specific targets is likely to lead to a lot of collateral damage… restraint should not be confused with weakness,” he said, adding that military action “would be contrary to Turkey’s interests but also to US interests and Iraq.”
For his part, Gonul said that Turkey has plans to make a cross-border incursion to attack Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq but “not urgently.”
