Baghdad Vows to Curb Kurds

Iraq vowed today to “chase and arrest” Kurds who are striking Turkey from northern Iraq, the BBC reports. "We will co-operate with our neighbors in defeating this threat," Maliki told diplomats at international talks in Istanbul. Baghdad showed its muscle by shutting a Kurdish political office, but analysts say that Maliki can’t curb the rebels without help from officials in Kurdistan.

Maliki also refused to rule out joint military strikes with Ankara against the rebels. Turkey currently has 100,000 troops massed on its southern border as a threat to Iraqi Kurds. "Our objective is to have an Iraq that has stability and safety,” said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “and that does not create threats for its neighbors." (More Nouri al-Maliki stories.)