ANKARA, Sept 15 (AFP) - Turkey will provide humanitarian aid to the mainly Turkmen Iraqi town of Tall Afar, where US military strikes led to recent tension between Ankara and Washington, a Turkish diplomat said Wednesday.
A Turkish Red Crescent convoy carrying enough tents for 450 families, 3,000 blankets and food for 5,000 should enter Iraqi territory on Friday, foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan said.
About 40 staff, including doctors and nurses, will accompany the convoy, he said, and more assitance will follow later.
More than 50 people were killed last week in pitched battles between insurgents and US troops in Tall Afar, a city of 150,000 people which is populated mainly by Shiite Turkmen.
US forces sealed off the community and hundreds of families camped out in a makeshift refugee camp on the outskirt of the town as US troops and rebels battled inside.
US troops claimed the city was a gathering point for foreign fighters entering Iraq from nearby Syria.
On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul threatened to cease all cooperation with the United States over Iraq if it continued to shell the town.
Things were quickly smoothed over, however, and Gul later said that Ankara and Washington would act together to provide assistance to the town's population.