Up to 50 Turkish air force planes bombed Kurdish targets in northern Iraq on Sunday, and approximately 700 Turkish troops moved 5 miles into Iraqi territory late the next day to hunt down militants before withdrawing. The strikes, the largest in several years, represent an escalation of the tension between the Kurds and the Turks—and the Americans.

Turkish jets dropped ordnance on installations belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (pkk), Turkish media reported, and Iraqi officials said that 10 villages were bombed and one woman was killed. The pkk stated that five of its members were killed as well as two civilians and claimed that many other civilians were wounded.

The Turkish military said there were no civilian casualties and that it hit all of its targets in the operation. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared it a success.

pkk militants have regularly crossed the border to strike Turkish military, police, government and infrastructure targets. The organization’s goal is to carve a socialist Kurdish state out of northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran. Turkey, the United States and other nations consider the group a terrorist organization.

Up to 3,000 pkk militants are thought to be in northern Iraq, while the Turkish military has massed approximately 100,000 troops on the border, according to the bbc.

Turkey’s chief of general staff, Yasar Buyukanit, went out of his way to say that the United States provided intelligence assistance for the Sunday strikes. “But what is more important is that the United States last night opened northern Iraqi airspace to us. By doing that, the United States approved the operation,” he said.

Washington has been scrambling to evade a full-scale Turkish invasion in northern Iraq. The Kurds’ semi-autonomous region is the only comparatively stable area in Iraq, and Kurds regard the United States as a friend—or did.

Although the Iraqi Kurds have their political differences and the majority, of course, are not pkk militants, Stratfor reports non-pkk Kurds are quite unwilling to betray the rebels. Washington opening the door for the Turkish enemy to carry out an operation across the border in Kurdistan will be seen as a betrayal, even though it has kept the other 99,000 Turkish fighters at bay for the time being.

The situation reveals America’s slipping influence and ability to exert its will in the Middle East. Popular opinion in Turkey has dictated that a major operation take place against the pkk, not only to Ankara, but ultimately to Washington as well. What is at stake for the U.S. is losing Turkey’s help in the war in Iraq. It is a vital supply route for U.S. troops.

It may end up being be a lose-lose situation for the State Department, however, depending on whether or not the limited assistance the U.S. has provided Turkish forces satiates the populace. For their part, the Kurds are certainly giving Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Bush administration the coldest of shoulders.

As Turkey’s regional influence continues to rise, it will be less and less concerned about Washington’s wishes. Watch for the Middle East mess to become completely unmanageable for the United States. For more on this subject, read “Why Turkey Matters” and The King of the South.