No. That headline is not a headfake, or a joke. It's true.
At least according to the Kurds in Northern Iraq.
And the story is backed up by reporting from other sources.
Last Summer, I wrote a few diaries about the continuing problems Turkey was having with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and terrorist attacks the group is perpetrating inside Turkey.
You can read them here, here, and here.
The impetus of the pending military incursion into Northern Iraq is the failure of both the United States and the nominal Iraqi Government to take action against the Kurdish terrorist groups who are holed up in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Turks have been more than patient trying to negotiate a resolution of this problem, and apparently got nowhere. Tis is yet another major faiolure of the Bush Iraq strategy that is almost never raised, or covered by the mainstream US media.
For obvious reasons, a Turkish military incursion into Kurdish controlled Northern Iraq would be a disaster on many fronts. Yet, it seems that the Bush administration is ither unwilling, or incapable of crackiomg down on the Kurdish terror groups that are attacking Turkey.
The Bush administration is making yet another visit to Ankara in order to forestall the Turkish action, but why in the world would Turkey believ any of the empty promises or guarantees we may make to then, when we haven't delivered on any of our previous ones?
Our special envoy to Turkey on this matter, retired Airforce General Joseph Ralston, assured the Turks only a week ago that the US was dealing with the PKK problem and that "[a]ll options are on the table. The PKK is a terrorist organization and needs to be put out of business."
But, apparently, this hasn't swayed the Turkish Government.
UPDATE: One other strong indicator that an incursion is coming is that in recent weeks, the Turkish Government has been arresting leaders of the main pro-Kurdish party in Turkey, and conducting raids on their various headquarters.
This may be an attempt to quell domestic opposition by the Kurds in Turkey if military action is launched in Northern Iraq.