U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade soldiers patrol the streets of Kirkuk

NEW YORK, April 25 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) - Turkey is sending Special Forces units into Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Iraq to foment unrest and trigger a Turkish peacekeeping action, senior U.S. military officers charged Friday, April 25.

U.S. paratroopers intercepted one unit of Turkish commandos which had attached itself to a humanitarian aid convoy in an attempt to reach the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, reported Time magazine.

According to American officers, the Turkish commandoes wore civilian clothes and their vehicles were lagging behind a legitimate aid convoy.

They'd hoped to pass unnoticed bur ran into trouble at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kirkuk.

"We were waiting for them," the magazine quoted a U.S. paratroop officer as saying.

"The Turkish Special Forces team put up no resistance though a mean arsenal was discovered in their cars, including a variety of AK-47s, M4s, grenades, body armor and night vision goggles," wrote the magazine.

"They did not come here with a pure heart," U.S. brigade commander Colonel Bill Mayville told the magazine.

"Their objective is to create an environment that can be used by Turkey to send a large peacekeeping force into Kirkuk," he argued.

U.S. commanders believe the mission of the Turkish Special Forces was to inflame tensions in Kirkuk, which like much of northern Iraq, has a sizable Turkoman population that has clashed with the Kurdish majority since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.

In the wake of Kirkuk fall to American forces on April 10th, Turkoman families and political parties were attacked by bands of Kurdish looters.

"In a dramatic display on April 11, an enraged group of Turkoman men dumped the body of a small boy, perhaps seven or eight years old, in front of the Daralsalum Hotel where international journalists had taken rooms.

"He'd been shot through the waist at close range by a PK light machine gun. The 7.62mm round traveled up through his torso and exited through his skull, leaving a hollowed shell where his little head was supposed to be, " wrote the Time.

"These (Turkish) forces are tied in to Turkoman groups in the city," said Mayville, citing a particular amalgam of local parties operating under the banner of the Iraqi Turkoman Front (ITF).

"We suspect their role was to strong-arm or discipline the members of the ITF. What they're doing is crystallizing the ITF along the Turkish agenda," Mayville said.

Of the 23 people intercepted by U.S. forces and believed to be associated with the Turkish Special Forces team, Mayville said 12 were identified as combat soldiers.

"We held them for a night, brought them in, fed them and watched their security. After all, they are our allies," he said.

Early Thursday, April 24, American troops escorted the Turkish commandos back over the border.

Turkey has threatened to intervene militarily in northern Iraq if Iraqi Kurds attempt to seize Mosul and Kirkuk, whose oil revenues may embolden any Iraqi Kurdish bid for independence.

Ankara fears that Kurdish self-rule in northern Iraq will ignite a separatist Kurdish rebellion in adjoining southeast Turkey.

Under a deal with the United States, Turkey last week sent military observers to northern Iraq to monitor the situation on the ground.

American forces took control of Mosul and Kirkuk over the weekend, as Kurdish forces that seized the two key towns withdrew following pressure from Turkey.