Colonel Bill Mayville, a U.S. brigade commander who was responsible for the region where this took place, accused the Turks of having links to the Iraqi Turkoman Front (ITF), an ethnic-Turkish militia. However, US forces made no effort to incarcerate the Turks, merely detaining them for a day, with food, security and comfort, and then escorting them back to the Iraqi-Turkish border. In the following months, Turkey continued its policy of sending small groups of soldiers into Iraqi Kurdistan, ostensibly to search for PKK bases. According to "The Economist", Turkey also began covertly arming the ITF as a lever against the PKK.