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ANKARA, July 20 (AFP) - 16h22 - The rebel
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said Wednesday it
would turn northern Iraq into a "quagmire" for the
Turkish army if it launches cross-border operations
to clean up on guerrilla camps there, a pro-Kurdish
news agency reported Wednesday.
The statement followed warnings by Ankara that it
could consider military incursions to hunt down the
PKK in neighboring northern Iraq, where most of the
group's militants have taken refuge.
"We are prepared for a possible attack. ... We will
make it fail and turn (northern Iraq) into a
quagmire for the forces that will carry it out," a
statement by the PKK's military wing said.
It was published on the Internet site of the
Germany-based MHA news agency, which is close to the
rebels and regularly publishes their statements.
The PKK, which has stepped up violence in Turkey's
mainly Kurdish southeast over the past few months,
retreated to northern Iraq after a unilateral
ceasefire it declared in 1999 in its war with
Ankara.
The militants began sneaking back after they called
off the truce in June
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed some
37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK, blacklisted as
a terrorist organization by the United States and
the European Union, took up arms for Kurdish
self-rule in the country's southeast.
AFP
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