Turkey sends aid to northern Iraq
Ankara plans to treat wounded Iraqis
AFP, April 28, 2003, ANKARA (AFP) - The first Turkish Red Crescent convoy carrying humanitarian aid crossed into northern Iraq (news - web sites) as officials said Ankara was ready to also take in wounded Iraqis for treatment.

The convoy -- comprised of four ambulances and seven trucks carrying food, water, medical supplies and equipment -- was heading towards the northern towns of Mosul and Kirkuk, which have considerable populations of Turkmens, an Iraqi community of Turkish origin.

"We will take the medical equipment and medicines to hospitals in Kirkuk and Mosul," Turhan Comez, a parliament member accompanying the aid mission, told Anatolia news agency Monday before the convoy crossed into Iraq at the Habur border gate.

Comez said the Turkish Red Crescent was also planning to send a mobile hospital to northern Iraq.

The head of the Turkish Red Crescent, Ertan Gonen, said the organization had made all preparations, including the renting of an airplane, to transport wounded Iraqis from Baghdad to Turkey for treatment.

"The hospitals in Baghdad are overwhelmed. Wounded people are waiting in the streets," Gonen told AFP in Ankara.

"We will send the plane, which has a capacity to take up to 300 wounded people, as soon as the airport in Baghdad is opened. We will give priority to women and children," he said.

The aid convoy was expected to arrive in Kirkuk later Monday, and travel to Mosul Tuesday. Gonen said its safe passage would be ensured by US escorts.

The Time Magazine on Friday quoted US military sources as saying they had intercepted Turkish commandoes attached to a humanitarian aid convoy bound for Kirkuk, who were suspected of aiming to foment unrest in the region and pave the way for a Turkish military intervention.

But Ankara said that security officials, and not special forces, were accompanying aid convoys crossing into Iraq from Turkey, and denied that they had any secret mission.

Gonen said Monday's convoy was the first humanitarian aid sent by the Turkish Red Crescent to Iraq. An Islamist-leaning non-governmental group shipped humanitarian supplies to Baghdad in early April, becoming the first local group to send assistance to Iraq.

The United Nations is also shipping thousands of tons of humanitarian assistance to Iraq via Turkey.