The Obama administration has not yet made a decision on the Turkish request, the report in Washington Post said. The Predators have been flying from Iraqi bases since 2007 and the US shares data from the planes' surveillance with Turkey as part of the two NATO allies' cooperation against the PKK. Now that the US forces are scheduled to withdraw from Iraq by end of the year, this cooperation may effectively come to an end unless new bases are found for the Predators.
Turkish officials were not immediately available to comment on the report.
The report came after Turkey announced that it suspended all military agreements with Israel due to Israeli refusal to apologize for killing eight Turks and a Turkish-American on an aid ship trying to break the blockade of Gaza on May 31, 2010. Turkey has been using Israeli-made Heron drones in its fight against the PKK. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan complained last week that Israel delayed the delivery of Herons sent to Israel for maintenance.
The Turkish military launched aerial strikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq in August, responding to a spike in PKK attacks since July which resulted in deaths of dozens of Turkish soldiers.
