Turkish Parliament Approves Possible Attack

Parliament authorized the government Wednesday to send troops into northern Iraq to root out Kurdish rebels who have been conducting raids into Turkey. The vote removed the last legal obstacle to an offensive, but there was no sign of imminent action as the US urged restraint. Turkish leaders, under pressure from Washington and Baghdad, have signaled they would not immediately give the order to send in 60,000 soldiers, armor and attack helicopters into a region that has largely escaped the chaos of the Iraq war. This crisis, along the border, has driven up oil prices along with tensions between Turkey and the United States.