Trade flourishes across Iraq-Turkey border

Since UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan defused the Iraq crisis, Turkish trucks rushed into Iraq carrying foodstuffs and other commodities to the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

"The last week witnessed a remarkable movement of Turkish lorries carrying unprohibited merchandises," a Kurdish custom official said.

Turk truck drivers prior to the end of the crisis between Iraq's government and the UN abstained from crossing Khapur border point, he added, "but now they try to recompense the delaying of purchased materials and deliver them as soon as possible."

Tht trucks' drivers bring huge quantities of fuel back home with their trucks.They pay taxes to local Kurdish authorities from the Kurdistan Democratic Party, whose militias along with those of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, have controlled most of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq since the Gulf War in 1991.

Allied forces established a safe heaven in the area to keep Iraqi Kurds safe from expected attacks by Iraq's army.