November 2, 2016   |   James Holbrooks at AntiMedia

(ANTIMEDIA) Iraq — Hours after Turkey deployed tanks and military vehicles to its southern border town of Silopi — and just days after Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan said his military might pursue Kurdish fighters across the border into Iraq — Rudaw news service reported Wednesday that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has warned the Turkish military it will “pay a heavy price” if it crosses the border.

“We do not want to fight Turkey. We do not want a confrontation with Turkey,” Abadi said while speaking to journalists in Baghdad on Tuesday.

“God forbid, even if we engage in war with them, the Turks will pay a heavy price. They will be damaged. Yes, we too will be damaged, but whenever a country fights a neighboring country, there will be no winner, both will end up losing.”

Stating that “[they] will fight them and [they will] look at them and treat them as the enemy” if Turkish forces make a move into Iraq, Abadi added:

“We are not afraid of Turkey, but the aftermath of the emergence of a new war. We do not want that. We want [a] reduction of the problems, not escalation.”

Last week, President Erdogan declared he may order his military to cross over into the northwestern Iraqi region on Sinjar. The Turkish leader claimed defense as a justification. Sinjar, he says, is the center of a growing Kurdish presence along the border.

From an October 27 report by the Associated Press: read more at: http://theantimedia.org/turkey-iraq-war-turkish-troops/