Thousands of Kurds and supporters took to the streets in northern Iraq Thursday to protest the Turkish parliament's decision to authorize the government to send troops across the border to root out Kurdish rebels who have been conducting raids into Turkey.  Elsewhere, US forces detained 15 suspected militants in raids, while an insurgent threw a hand grenade into a school, wounding six boys.

The vote in Turkey on Wednesday removed the last legal obstacle to an offensive, but there was no sign of imminent action as the United States and the Iraqi government urged restraint. More than 5,000 men and women — political figures and average citizens alike — packed the streets as they marched to the UN offices in Dahuk, a Kurdish city near the border with Turkey.

The crowd waved the sunshine flag of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region and shouted slogans praising Kurdish nationality, handing representatives at the offices a document calling on the U.N. to intervene to stop any Turkish activity inside Iraq.

Kurdish leaders have warned that any Turkish incursion into northern Iraq would threaten the relative stability of the region and called on Ankara to seek peaceful means against violence from separatist rebels. “No to military action, Yes to dialogue,”  the demonstrators shouted. Evan Dosky, a student, said the Turks should stick to fighting the Kurdish separatist rebels.