Turkey has deployed troops and engineers near its border with Iraq to prepare for any U.S.-led war on Baghdad, a senior military official said Monday.
The official, in the border province of Sirnak, gave no figure for the size of the deployment but local sources put it at 10,000-15,000 troops. The official confirmed widespread local reports of Turkish units moving close to border crossings and deploying along the mountainous border with northern Iraq.
"In the last few days there have been some troop deployments," he told Reuters. "The reason for the deployments is ensuring that the Turkish military is ready in all ways for the possibility of an Iraq operation." (Albawaba.com)
