2-star in N. Iraq staying out of Kurd fight

2-star in N. Iraq staying out of Kurd fight
By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Oct 26, 2007 13:35:51 EDT

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. military commander in northern Iraq said Friday he plans to do “absolutely nothing” to counter Kurdish rebels operating from the region and staging deadly cross-border attacks into Turkey.

Turkish leaders have threatened a large-scale offensive into Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi authorities don’t stop the rebels.

Amid feverish diplomatic efforts to forestall an incursion, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said it’s not the U.S. military’s responsibility to act. He said that he’s sent no additional U.S. troops to the area and he’s not tracking hiding places or logistics activities of the PKK rebels.

He also has not seen Kurdish Iraqi authorities move against the rebels either, Mixon told Pentagon reporters by videoconference from a U.S. base near Tikrit in northern Iraq.

“I have not seen any overt action ... But those are the types of activities that are managed and coordinated at higher levels than my own,” he said.

Mixon did his best in a half-hour news conference to rebuff the idea that the U.S. has any military role to play in the spiraling crisis between Turkey and Iraq.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_mixon_071026/