Worried Iraqi Officials Urge Calm as Turkish-Kurdish Conflict Escalates

BAGHDAD, Oct. 10 -- Turkish armed forces' escalation of bombing and shelling in northern Iraq, along with threats of a broad ground incursion across the border, has alarmed and surprised Iraqi officials, who say the problems Turkey faces from rebel groups can be solved peacefully through diplomacy.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said officials in his government are preparing to get parliamentary approval for a cross-border military operation aimed at disrupting the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a guerrilla group that operates on both sides of the border.

In recent days, Turkey has stepped up its campaign against Kurdish separatists based in the mountainous border region of southern Turkey and northern Iraq, after the killings of more than a dozen Turkish soldiers. The Associated Press reported that Turkish aircraft on Wednesday bombed suspected rebel hideouts along the border. Iraqi officials say artillery shelling has intensified in recent days.

The growing confrontation puts the United States in a difficult position. Turkey, a NATO ally with a powerful army, has allowed U.S. forces to use bases on its soil to assist in the Iraq war. The Kurds are also staunch allies of the United States and preside over the most peaceful region of Iraq. A new front in an already complicated war in Iraq would damage U.S. efforts to achieve stability here.

Iraqi officials on Wednesday said they believed that a major ground invasion remained unlikely but called on Turkey to desist from further attacks inside Iraq. "We hope and we urge the Turks not to make any incursion across the Iraqi borders," Labeed M. Abbawi, an undersecretary in Iraq's Foreign Ministry, said in an interview. "They cannot hold the Iraqis responsible because the Iraqis are doing everything to contain the PKK."

PKK fighters exercise near-total authority in parts of mountainous northern Iraq. Their men and women maintain highway checkpoints and have complete freedom of movement within their territory. Abbawi acknowledged that "we cannot really stop some of these elements from going from the Iraqi mountains into Turkey."

"This new escalation came as a real surprise, frankly," Abbawi said. "We are not seeking a confrontation with Turkey. Definitely, what we need is to tackle this problem through diplomatic channels and through consultation and dialogue."

Previous incursions by Turkey in the past decade have failed to drive out the guerrillas. Mahmoud Othman, an Iraqi parliament member and a Kurd, said a quick strike into Iraq seemed increasingly likely. A major invasion, with a sustained troop presence in northern Iraq, would be a calamity for both countries, he suggested.

"If they did that, it would be a big mistake. Everybody will suffer," he said. "If they use force, that would be angering their own Kurds, the Kurds who voted for them. And secondly, it doesn't fit into their demands to be a part of Europe." Turkey wants to join the European Union.

Iraq and its Middle Eastern neighbors have scheduled a conference in Istanbul later this month as part of a series of meetings aimed at greater regional cooperation to address Iraq's problems. Iraqi officials worry that intensified violence could undermine the conference.

Mohammed al-Askari, a spokesman for Iraq's Defense Ministry, said Iraqis do not accept any interference from outside their borders. He also condemned any group staging attacks on neighbors from inside Iraq. "Turkey is shelling our villages on the borders in northern Iraq, but we still believe in a diplomatic solution," Askari said.

Violence also broke out elsewhere in northern Iraq on Wednesday. A suicide attacker exploded a car bomb at a checkpoint manned by Kurdish militiamen known as pesh merga, killing four people and wounding 21, according to the U.S. military. A second such attack, east of Tikrit, killed an policeman and another person, while wounding 22.