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ANKARA, Turkey - Iraq's
interim president promised on Monday to prevent
Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq from launching
attacks into Turkey, apparently hoping to avoid a
Turkish military response.
Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy have stepped up
attacks in Turkey, officials said, including
bombings last week at two small hotels and at a
liquefied petroleum gas plant in Istanbul that
killed two people and wounded 11 others.
There are about 5,000 Turkish Kurdish rebels holed
up in the mountains of Iraq, where many among Iraq's
Kurds sympathize with their cause.
Turkey repeatedly has urged U.S. and Iraqi
authorities to crack down on the rebels, and on
Monday, Iraq's interim President Ghazi al-Yawer
assured Turkey's president that Baghdad would take
action.
``We cannot tolerate or allow any group or formation
that is posing a threat to the security of our
neighbors,'' al-Yawer said at a joint news
conference with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
In the past, Turkey's military - which has some
1,500 troops and tanks in Iraq to monitor rebel
movements - has made incursions into northern Iraq
to wipe out rebel bases and has left open the
possibility of a future incursion.
In an apparent attempt to avert a possible
cross-border military campaign by Turkey, the Iraqi
leader added that ``good neighborly relations mean
not mingling into the internal affairs of the
other.''
Al-Yawer was in Turkey for two days, mainly to
discuss security and trade, a visit that came amid a
surge of kidnappings of foreigners, including
Turkish truck drivers taken hostage this week, in
Iraq.
But Turkey has pressed the issue of the Kurdish
rebels, who have demanded autonomy for Turkey's 12
million Kurds during a decades-long war that has
claimed some 37,000 lives since 1984..
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