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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, May 11 (AFP) - 17h20 - The
Turkish army said Wednesday that an increasing
number of Kurdish rebels had been infiltrating
Turkey from neighboring Iraq, bringing along "large
amounts" of explosives to carry out possible attacks
across the country.
The warning came as security officials in Diyarbakir,
the central city of Turkey's mainly Kurdish
southeast, said three Kurdish rebels were shot dead
in a clash in the nearby province of Tunceli.
"Unfortunately, the infiltrations (of Kurdish
militants from Iraq) continue. We have stepped up
our measures," land forces commander Yasar Buyukanit
told reporters here.
"The terrorists coming from northern Iraq are
bringing along large amounts of C-4 explosives,
which is a special, very powerful type of
explosive," the general said. "Let me warn that this
could be dangeroous both in rural areas and in big
cities."
Turkish security forces have recently arrested
several suspected Kurdish militants who were
allegedly planning bomb attacks on government
targets.
Thousands of militants from the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody
separatist war on Ankara, retreated to the mountains
of neighboring northern Iraq following a unilateral
ceasefire the group announced in 1999 after the
capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The PKK called off the truce last year as the
Turkish authorities sounded the alarm that the
rebels were sneaking back to Turkey from northern
Iraq to engage in anti-government violence.
Ankara says northern Iraq has become a training
ground for the PKK and has repeatedly voiced
frustration that no action has so far been taken
against the militants by the United States, which
also considers the PKK a terrorist organization.
US reluctance to employ military measures against
the group has led to tensions between Ankara and
Washington and is believed to have contributed to
rising anti-US sentiment in Turkey.
In the latest episode of bloodshed, fighting broke
out late Tuesday when soldiers on a routine security
sweep near the town of Hozat, in Tunceli province,
came across a group of five PKK rebels, security
sources in Diyarbakir said.
Three of the rebels were killed and a security
operation with air support was under way to catch
the other two militants, they said.
The PKK's bloody campaign for self-rule in mainly
Kurdish southeastern Turkey between 1984 and 1999
claimed some 37,000 lives and was the source of
accusations of gross human rights violations on both
sides.
A group calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom
Falcons, which officials say is a PKK offshoot,
threatened to attack government buildings and
industrial and touristic targets after the rebels
called off their truce on June 1, 2004.
AFP
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