Northern Iraq

BAGHDAD -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urged the Turkish military yesterday to abandon its invasion of guerrilla-controlled lands in the northernmost reaches of Iraq by mid-March, amid signs that the American and Iraqi governments are increasingly worried that fierce fighting along the mountainous Turkey-Iraq border could widen into a broader and bloodier conflict. "It's very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave," Gates told reporters in India yesterday as he prepared to leave for Ankara, Turkey's capital.

Thousands of miles away in northern Iraq, the Upper Tigris River is fouled by a litany of problems: trash dumped in the river, raw sewage flowing into the water, streams diverted by gravel mining, dams that block fish passage. If the Upper Tigris Riverkeeper, Nwenar Fatih, has any chance at improving the health of the river, he needs solid scientific data. So after attending a Waterkeeper Alliance conference in Georgia over the weekend, Fatih and two colleagues spent Monday on the South River in Anne Arundel County, learning to use a $12,000 water quality meter.

WASHINGTON -- Allied planes resumed their patrols over the "no fly" zone in northern Iraq yesterday, three days after two Black Hawk helicopters were downed in a "friendly fire" accident that now appears to have been caused by multiple mistakes and failures. The flights, canceled for 24 hours, were restarted on a reduced schedule and under amended operational guidelines while an Air Force-led investigation into the cause of Thursday's fatal blunder continued.A Pentagon spokesman said the reduced schedule was "adequate to meet our operational requirements."

On Saturday, as 4,000 runners hit the streets in the Under Armour Baltimore Marathon, a more compelling race will take place half a world away. There, in a salute to the run back home, an Ellicott City man will head a small band of U.S. soldiers on a 13-mile chase through the rocky hills of northern Iraq - amid dangers unknown, and in 100-degree heat. Leading the pack will be Timothy Kirby, 36, an Army captain from Howard County who is part of an elite Border Transition Team stationed in Sulaimaniyah, in the mountains of Kurdistan.

BAGHDAD -- Assailants opened fire on a minivan carrying power-plant workers near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, yesterday, killing 11 of them in the second lethal assault on laborers in the area in five days. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi officials said a seven-week-old security crackdown in the capital, helped by an infusion of U.S. troops, would be extended to Mosul, in northern Iraq, and some other outlying areas. In a sign of opposition to the security sweep, a jointly run U.S.-Iraqi security center in Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim stronghold in Baghdad, was attacked by mortars and a suicide car bomb.

WASHINGTON -- Two U.S. Navy jets on a reconnaissance mission over northern Iraq were attacked twice by Iraqi artillery units Tuesday, the first confirmed incidents of hostile fire since allied forces began occupying a designated security zone for Kurdish refugees, U.S. military officials disclosed yesterday.The A-6E Intruders were unscathed, and there was no immediate retaliatory action, officials said.The planes continued their mission and returned safely to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which has been positioned off the coast of Turkey to support U.S. military operations in northern Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- With Turkey poised to attack Kurdish rebels launching cross-border assaults from northern Iraq, President Bush pledged yesterday to cooperate with the Turkish military in locating and disrupting terrorist camps responsible for the conflict. After a meeting between Bush and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, the White House indicated that it is too soon to tell whether a Turkish incursion into the Kurdish territory of northern Iraq would be averted. But Bush and Erdogan indicated they are willing to work together, coordinating the intelligence of the U.S. and Turkish militaries, to track down and "dissolve" the camps and disrupt the supply lines of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. "The PKK is an enemy of Turkey, a free Iraq and the United States of America," Bush said, seated next to the Turkish leader in the Oval Office after their private meeting.

BAGHDAD -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking shortly after Turkey sent about 300 troops across the border in pursuit of Kurdish separatist guerrillas, cautioned yesterday against any action that could destabilize Iraq. Turkey's one-day incursion began hours before Rice arrived in Kirkuk in the latest attempt to revive Iraq's stalled reconciliation process after a sharp downturn in violence. U.S. officials have reported a 60 percent drop in attacks nationwide since the completion of a 28,500-troop buildup in June.

ANKARA, Turkey -- Thousands of civilians are fleeing their cities and villages in northern Iraq in fear of Iraqi reprisals against Kurdish rebels and their supporters.Unofficial estimates of the number of ill-equipped and unfed Kurdish refugees likely to attempt to cross the mountains to Iran and Turkey range from 1 million to 3 million.Faced with this prospect, Turkey called yesterday for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council. A statement issued by Turkey's National Security Council, headed by President Turgut Ozal, said that "over 200,000 people, mostly women and children, are facing danger of death near our borders."

WASHINGTON -- U.S. troops began entering northern Iraq yesterday to scout possible sites for camps where more than 500,000 starving and homeless Kurdish refugees could receive emergency aid and military protection, Pentagon officials said.The deployment of about 100 soldiers marked the first step in what officials said would be a rapidly escalating U.S. military presence intended solely to improve humanitarian relief efforts over the next two to four weeks.Several thousand more U.S. troops, along with undetermined numbers of French and British forces, are likely to move into Iraq soon, but Pentagon officials -- some of them acknowledging possible security threats from Iraqi forces in the region -- insisted that their stay in the country would be "temporary."

BAGHDAD - -A bomb in a sprawling Shiite Muslim neighborhood killed at least 72 people and wounded more than 135 Wednesday, highlighting the danger that Iraq could slip into unrestrained violence after U.S. combat troops leave its cities - and with the deadline less than a week away. It was unclear who was responsible for detonating the bomb, which was hidden in a motorcycle with a vegetable cart. Some blamed Sunni insurgents from al-Qaida in Iraq or remnants of former dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, but others suggested that the bombing was the result of disputes among Shiite factions.

WASHINGTON - Violence has largely subsided in Iraq. American casualties are at their lowest levels since 2003, and Iraqi forces are maintaining security in most of the country. Is the war in Iraq over? Iraq is a hot issue out on the presidential campaign trail, where Barack Obama and John McCain are squabbling over the genesis of the war and where to go from here. But from the battlefield, U.S. combat commanders are giving some surprising answers. "Our ticket out of here was to develop Iraqi security forces.

SULAYMANIYA, Iraq -- Turkey unleashed air and artillery strikes against Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq yesterday, officials here said, five days after the Turks completed a major ground offensive in the mountainous border region. Turkey declared at the time that it had achieved its goal of denying the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a free hand to attack its territory from sanctuaries in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. But U.S. and Turkish military analysts were skeptical that the operation would have more than a temporary effect.

BAGHDAD -- Army and police checkpoints dotted the Iraqi capital yesterday in preparation for a visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran that will coincide with the visit of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Adm. Mike Mullen arrived in Baghdad yesterday on an unannounced trip to meet with commanders and Iraqi officials before a series of briefings he is to make to President Bush in April about the way ahead in the war effort. There were no plans for Mullen and Ahmadinejad, who is to arrive today, to cross paths, and the timing of their visits appeared to be coincidental.

BAGHDAD -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urged the Turkish military yesterday to abandon its invasion of guerrilla-controlled lands in the northernmost reaches of Iraq by mid-March, amid signs that the American and Iraqi governments are increasingly worried that fierce fighting along the mountainous Turkey-Iraq border could widen into a broader and bloodier conflict. "It's very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave," Gates told reporters in India yesterday as he prepared to leave for Ankara, Turkey's capital.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush spoke by telephone yesterday to 10 U.S. servicemen and women stationed in Iraq and elsewhere around the world to thank them for serving their country and spending the holiday season away from their families. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president told them their country is proud of them. "He said he couldn't thank them enough for their contribution to their country, hopes they are in high spirits, and that they are serving a cause that is very noble," Perino said.

WASHINGTON -- The United States began withdrawing the last of its troops from northern Iraq yesterday but warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that "residual" allied combat forces would be poised to strike quickly if he renews a reign of terror against Iraqi Kurds.Iraqi army and paramilitary forces will be barred from entering a designated security zone for the Kurds in northern Iraq, and any use of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in that area will not be tolerated by the United States and its allies, said Pete Williams, the Pentagon's chief spokesman.

WASHINGTON - The assassination of a top oilfield security official in northern Iraq yesterday marked the latest blow to a Kurdish population that is starting to fear for its future in a new "sovereign" Iraq. Kurds claim that they have been denied their rightful share of political power in the interim Iraqi government scheduled to run the country after June 30, and that the measure of protection they won in an interim constitution was undercut by a resolution unanimously adopted last week by the United Nations Security Council.

BAGHDAD -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking shortly after Turkey sent about 300 troops across the border in pursuit of Kurdish separatist guerrillas, cautioned yesterday against any action that could destabilize Iraq. Turkey's one-day incursion began hours before Rice arrived in Kirkuk in the latest attempt to revive Iraq's stalled reconciliation process after a sharp downturn in violence. U.S. officials have reported a 60 percent drop in attacks nationwide since the completion of a 28,500-troop buildup in June.

President Bush and leading Democratic presidential candidates have said a military attack on Iran is a viable option. According to the president, Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology puts the Middle East "under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust." Yet the 1981 Algiers Accords, backed by Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, prohibit such an attack. The Bush administration has defended the validity of the Algiers Accords in court, and the courts agreed, so there can be no doubt of the documents' legality.