U.S. Ambassador in Ankara James Jeffrey denied any deficiency in his country’s part in intelligence sharing with the Turkish Army after PKK attacks.
Monday, 21 June 2010 16:26
U.S. Ambassador in Ankara James Jeffrey denied any deficiency in his country’s part in intelligence sharing with the Turkish Army after PKK attacks.
Jeffrey, in a message of condolence he released Monday for the families of Turkish soldiers killed in a deadly attack staged by PKK militants, said he shared the grief over the loss of Turkish soldiers, regarding PKK as the “common enemy” of Turkey and the U.S.
A large group of PKK militants which infiltrated into Turkey from the North of Iraq, attacked a military outpost near the Iraqi border Saturday. 11 soldiers were killed and 16 were wounded during that attack and operations that ensued.
In the after math of the attack news and comments appeared in the media voicing doubts over the intelligence sharing mechanism between the U.S. and Turkish Armed Forces against PKK.
Many columnists and military analysts criticized the mechanism, some accuseed U.S. of not providing intelligence.
Jeffrey’s message comes after such setting.
Jeffrey said his country continued to actively support Turkey, “a U.S.ally” in his own words, in its fight to terminate the terrorist threat.
“There is no change to the level of our intelligence-sharing with Turkey regarding PKK activities in northern Iraq.”
In November 2007, Turkish Prime Minister met former U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington D.C. and the two agreed on intelligence sharing. The U.S. military began supplying real-time intelligence to Turkey and Turkish Armed Forces used the intelligence to launch air strikes against PKK targets in the north of Iraq.
Agencies