TURKEY/IRAQ: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT TURKISH

S E C R E T ANKARA 001604 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/22/2017 TAGS: PREL PTER MARR MOPS IZ TU SUBJECT: TURKEY/IRAQ: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT TURKISH FORCES WARNING ON IRAQ REF: ANKARA 1600 Classified By: DCM Nancy McEldowney for reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (S) Local Turkish military authorities at Silopi on the Turkey-Iraq border conveyed a warning to U.S. military LNO late June 21 that Turkish forces would respond massively to any attack against Turkish military forces stationed in northern Iraq, claiming they had intelligence an attack by the PKK might be imminent (reftel). LNO followed up June 22 with the SF Brigade G-3 (Operations) chief of Silopi-based Turkish Special Forces unit, who told him that the specific PKK threat was to the Turkish unit stationed at Batufa in northern Iraq (grid coords 38S LG 235 163). At approximately 2000 hours local on June 21, the Turkish commander at Batufa reportedly met with KDP security officials (Peshmerga) outside the base and warned them not to allow any PKK attack on the base. Later that evening, the Turks reportedly received further intelligence that the PKK was backing down from the planned attack. The officer told LNO that the Turks noticed a change in PKK posture after the local commander's warning to the Peshmerga and speculated that the PKK had backed down on Masoud Barzani's orders. ¶2. (S) The Turkish officer told our LNO that he believes the main threat remains to the Batufa compound and that the Turks would provide us more specific intelligence on June 23. He stated that operational plans are ready and the trigger to a Turkish response would be a PKK attack against Turkish forces in northern Iraq. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON