Blame it all on DEBKAfile.
Today the rumor-intelligence website ran with a story alleging that the Turkish military buildup in southeastern Turkey boiled over into a 50,000-troop invasion of northern Iraq — designed not only to crush the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists across the Turkish-Iraqi border but to send the distinct message that Kurdish independence is a pipe dream. DEBKA’s story promised that “this is only the first wave of Turkish invaders, with more to come.” From there, the AP and Reuters went to their sources in Ankara, Erbil (the capitol of Iraqi Kurdistan) and Baghdad, and ran with pieces suggesting that Turkish troops were engaged in what one anonymous Turkish official called “hot pursuit,” but not an actual invasion. All of a sudden, it looked like the sum of all fears — a full-fledged Turkish intervention in Iraq due to Kurdish ambitions — was manifesting.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=180689