American Troops

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said yesterday that he would ask Parliament this week to consider measures that could clear the way for American combat troops to use the country as a base for an invasion of Iraq. Speaking briefly to reporters, Gul did not explicitly say what measures he would ask Parliament to consider, but he said Turkey needed to take steps to protect its national interests. "We will apply to Parliament within the week," he said. His announcement followed a decision last week by the country's top civilian and military leaders to prepare the country for war. Gul and his government are under heavy pressure from the Bush administration to allow thousands of American troops to use Turkey as a base for a possible campaign against Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- One day after two Somalis were shot and killed in the belief that they and their companions were trying to run a roadblock in Mogadishu, the Pentagon said yesterday that the episode might have been a mistake.According to the new account, the Somalis were riding in a van -- not, as the original version held, a truck. They were not armed with guns, though some knives were found.The Pentagon also acknowledged that the Somalis might not have tried to run the roadblock, but might have crashed into it when the van's brakes failed.

WASHINGTON - The United States and the Philippines may soon start a new military training operation against Muslim extremists in the southern Philippines that would involve 300 to 400 American troops, including many on jungle combat patrols in a risky hunt for a resurgent guerrilla force, military officials say. The proposed exercise, which could begin as soon as next month, reflects the Pentagon's growing concern that militant Islamic networks pose...

WASHINGTON -- As the Clinton administration struggles to find a way out of Somalia, the Pentagon and State Department are locked in a last-minute dispute over the deployment of hundreds of American military trainers and engineers to Haiti over the next two weeks, senior administration officials said.Under a U.N.-brokered agreement reached with Haiti's military leaders last summer to restore exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power by Oct. 30, the United States promised to send troops as part of a U.N. force.

SEOUL, South Korea - In response to heavy South Korean pressure, the United States has agreed to stretch out over the next three years the withdrawal of one-third of American troops here, dropping an earlier deadline of next year, U.S. and South Korean officials said yesterday. Washington had announced the withdrawal in June, over objections from South Korea. This summer, 3,500 American soldiers left here for Iraq, the first of a total of 5,000 American troops to be withdrawn this year from South Korea.

President Barack Obama paid tribute on Memorial Day to the men and women who have died defending America, singling out Vietnam veterans as an under-appreciated and sometimes maligned group of war heroes, vowing that "it will not happen again. " This is truly disgracefully pandering for votes among families of fallen American troops. This is no doubt a new low for Mr. Obama. Marking Memorial Day at both the Vietnam War Memorial and earlier at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from the capital, President Obama noted that for the first time in nine years, "Americans are not fighting and dying in Iraq," and the nation was winding down its role in the conflict in Afghanistan.

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Turkey's prime minister, Abdullah Gul, said yesterday that his government would ask parliament this month to let U.S. troops use the country in the event of a war with Iraq, marking the first time the government has publicly declared its intentions to back U.S. war plans. Gul told Turkish reporters that his government had all but given up on diplomatic efforts to disarm Iraq and had decided to join the United States in its plans to confront Iraq by military means, according to a transcript of the meeting.

ISTANBUL - Turkey's military stepped into the political battle over the country's role in a conflict with Iraq yesterday, signaling its support for a measure, blocked by the Turkish parliament last week, that would allow thousands of American troops to stage an attack from Turkish soil. In a rare public statement, Hilmi Ozkok, the chief of the Turkish general staff, appeared to support efforts by the country's political leaders to ask parliament to reconsider a resolution that would have allowed as many as 62,000 American troops to attack from bases here.

TOKYO -- The apparent rape this month of a 12-year-old Japanese school girl by three American servicemen in Okinawa has provoked an uproar in Japan, bringing calls to revise rules that critics say make it easy for American soldiers to get away with crimes and calls to remove American military bases.Seeking to quell the outcry, Ambassador Walter F. Mondale and Lt. Gen. Richard B. Myers, commander of U.S. military forces in Japan, apologized to Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota at a meeting yesterday at the American Embassy.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq acknowledged yesterday that a security crackdown by American and Iraqi forces had failed to reduce violence in the Iraqi capital, and called the results "disheartening." With attacks in Baghdad having increased by 22 percent during the past three weeks, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV indicated that military planners might have to go back to the drawing board. "We're obviously very concerned about what we're seeing in the city," Caldwell said.