Jun 5, 2008 5:38 am US/Pacific
Report: Iran, Turkey Strike Rebels In Iraq
BAGHDAD (CBS) ―
A Turkish TV station is quoting a senior military commander as saying that Turkey and Iran have carried out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.
CNN-Turk television reports that Gen. Ilker Basbug has confirmed for the first time that the two countries share intelligence against the rebels.
He said the two countries plan to launch more coordinated operations against the rebel group in the future.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984 from bases in northern Iraq.
The Iranian army frequently shells villages in the mountains of northern Iraq, where it alleges that rebels from PEJAK, or the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, are based.
CBS News producer Randall Joyce said Iraqi officials would not immediately confirm the strikes Thursday, but there have been recent reports that the various Kurdish factions fighting cross border insurgencies might be trying to unite in some fashion.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Thursday it had captured two Shiite militia suspects south of Baghdad.
A military statement says one of the men is an Iranian-trained "special groups" leader, and the other is a top weapons smuggler and financier. It says both men surrendered when American soldiers stormed their homes in separate raids early Thursday.
The U.S. uses the label "special groups" to describe Shiite fighters who are defying a cease-fire order by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Many of them are believed to have fled recent fighting in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City.
In other developments:
A military jury on Wednesday acquitted a Marine intelligence officer of charges that he tried to help cover up the killings of 24 Iraqis. The seven officer panel cleared 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson, who was the first of three Marines to be tried in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving Iraqi deaths to come out of the war. Grayson, who has always maintained he did nothing wrong, was not present at the scene of the killings of men, women and children on Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha. He was accused of telling a sergeant to delete photographs of the dead from a digital camera and laptop computer.
A senior Iraqi lawmaker says parliament has approved a bill to combat oil smuggling. Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani says the measure provides for stiff penalties for oil smugglers ranging from fines to imprisonment and confiscation of boats used for smuggling. To become a law, the measure needs the signature of Iraq's three-member presidential council. Parliament approved the bill Wednesday.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry says the United Arab Emirates' top diplomat has arrived in Baghdad on the first visit to Iraq by a Gulf minister since the 2003 invasion. The Emirates foreign minister, Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, landed in Baghdad early Thursday. Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Labid Abbawi, says Abdullah is in Iraq to discuss "bilateral relations." He says the UAE minister will meet with Iraq's president, prime minister, foreign minister and parliament speaker.
The IOC has provisionally suspended Iraq's national Olympic committee. Today's decision follows the Iraqi government's recent dissolution of the national body. The International Olympic Committee says the move was political interference and a clear breach of the national body's autonomy. The IOC says it won't recognize the interim committee appointed by the Iraqi government.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
