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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/07/international/worldspecial/07TURK.html
Turkey Says U.S. Has Agreed to Free 11 Soldiers
(New York Times) A senior Turkish official said Sunday that American forces in Iraq had agreed to release 11 Turkish soldiers, even as American officials accused the soldiers of plotting to kill an American-backed Iraqi official. The detention of Turkish soldiers by American forces in Iraq occurred on Friday when the Americans raided a compound held by members of the Turkish special forces in Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq. Turkey has been sending troops into northern Iraq since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war to pursue Kurdish guerrillas. A senior Defense Department official said the soldiers were "acting on intelligence about possible illicit activities that were being planned against municipal officials in the region." A senior American military official said the plot appeared to be aimed at the governor of Kirkuk. Since the fall of Hussein's government, Turkish soldiers have been acting in support of the Turkomans in the region.