Gul mentions 'Kurdistan'; Afghan strategy set for release next week

Gul becomes first to use 'Kurdistan'

Turkish President Abdullah Gul became the first Turkish official to use Kurdistan to define the regional government in northern Iraq.

Gul arrived in Baghdad on Monday, becoming the first Turkish head of state to visit Iraq in 33 years. The Turkish president met with top government officials to discuss the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and other bilateral issues.

Gul said the "Kurdistan regional administration" had a key role to play in ending the guerrilla activity of the PKK in Turkish territory, becoming the first Turkish official to use the term, Turkey's Hurriyet reports.

Turkish official policy does not recognize the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq for fears the regional ambitions in northern Iraq may eventually encroach on Turkish territory.

Gul's visit comes as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, called for a regional summit later this spring to address the PKK issue.

Gul continued his Iraqi trip Tuesday, attending a lunch in his honor with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top officials.

Iraq's jihad shall continue, group says

Jihad against occupation forces in Iraq will continue until all foreign forces submit to the resistance and leave the country, an anti-American group said.

The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq called for unity between its resistance fighters in Iraq and the people of Iraq to oppose the "evil occupation."

The AMSI formed in the immediate aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. AMSI leaders say they oppose terrorism but legitimize the resistance of what they consider the foreign occupation of Iraq.

Harith Sulayman al-Dari, the secretary-general of the group, in February called for holy war against the occupation forces as a means to overcome many of Iraq's problems.

"Iraqi resistance and jihad is the only option," he said.

The AMSI said that as the Iraq war enters its sixth year, there were signs the occupation has weakened, but the group stressed the resistance should continue until all foreign forces have left the country.

"The jihad of the people of Iraq will not stop until the withdrawal of the enemy as submissive," the group said.

The U.S. Treasury Department in September froze assets of five members of the AMSI for "targeting and planning attacks against innocent Iraqis, the government of Iraq, coalition forces and U.S. troops," according to a news release from the department.

Iraqi military transition seamless

Training and support for Iraqi national forces is vital to a seamless transition of military power from American troops, top U.S. military officials said.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Steven Salazar, deputy chief of the U.S. component in Iraq charged with training Iraqi forces, said it is in the strategic interest of the United States and Iraq to ensure national forces there are able to secure their country independently, the Multinational Force-Iraq reports.

"We are partners; it is in both our nation's best interest to ensure we train a generation of trainers to sustain the equipment," the commander said.

Iraqi Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul Kareem said his soldiers required additional training over the course of the next few months to become proficient in the use of light-armored vehicles and the M1A1 Abrams tank.

Iraqi forces began receiving shipments of the M1 in February with as many as 140 slated for delivery from the United States by early next year.

Salazar stressed the training of Iraqi national forces was required not only for the safety of the nation but also under provisions outlined in the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement.

"We must have a transition that is invisible and seamless," he said.

U.S. combat forces begin to pull out of major Iraqi cities later this year.

Nothing new in Afghan strategy

The Washington plan to revitalize the strategy in Afghanistan with a policy of increasing troop numbers and courting moderates is nothing new, an expert said.

Gilles Dorronsoro, an expert on Afghanistan with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, criticized the idea that simply increasing the effort in the embattled country was a shift in policy.

"We still have this idea that with more resources, more men, more money, we can do the job. And we cannot, actually," he said. "We need a new strategy. And there is nothing clearly indicating that we are at that point right now."

Dorronsoro said the idea of courting moderates in the Taliban regime was a difficult task, given the organizational structure of the group and its cohesive policies.

On the issue of al-Qaida, he noted that the terrorist cabal has shifted its operational base away from Afghanistan and warned that placing al-Qaida at the front of the Afghan strategy may actually encourage "the spirit of jihad."

Dorronsoro also criticized plans to send 17,000 American troops to Afghanistan, saying that amount was far short of the number of forces needed to secure the country.

"If you want to beat the insurgency in Afghanistan, if you want to be sure that the Taliban are really out of the picture, you have to send probably 100,000 or 200,000 men into Afghanistan because you need to seal the border," he said.

Holbrooke: Afghan strategy comprehensive

The U.S. strategy for Afghanistan includes broad cooperation from NATO allies and other regional partners, said Washington's Afghan envoy, Richard Holbrooke.

Holbrooke spoke with top NATO and European officials in Brussels on the Washington plan to revamp the strategy in Afghanistan with a comprehensive troop surge, which includes U.S. and Afghan forces, courting some moderates within the Taliban regime and addressing the opium trade there.

"I found a very encouraging symmetry of views between our NATO allies and other troop-contributing countries and the United States," Holbrooke said.

Washington said it would unveil its new approach to Afghanistan at an international summit for the war-torn country planned next week at The Hague, Netherlands, The Guardian reports.

U.S. President Barack Obama hinted at the strategy in an interview with CBS television during the weekend.

"What we're looking for is a comprehensive strategy. And there's got to be an exit strategy," he said. "There's got to be a sense that this is not perpetual drift."

Holbrooke also denied reports that Washington may put in a chief executive in the Kabul government to rival Afghan President Hamid Karzai, though The Guardian's report said Karzai's role could be recast at next week's conference in The Hague.

Top envoy to Afghanistan visits Washington

U.N. envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide met with top foreign policy officials in Washington to discuss new strategies ahead of a summit in the Netherlands next week.

Eide met with U.S. Sens. Richard Lugar of the Foreign Relations Committee and Carl Levin of the Armed Services Committee, along with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and top national security advisers.

U.S. national security adviser James Jones joined Clinton in expressing their support for Eide following criticisms from the top U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke.

Clinton had called for an international summit to discuss a revitalized strategy for Afghanistan, which will be unveiled next week at The Hague.

The U.N. envoy's visit comes as the U.N. Security Council voted to extend the mandate for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan for another year.

The Security Council called for greater cooperation with the U.N. mission and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to ensure broad support for the stabilization effort in Afghanistan.

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(dgraeber@upi.com)