|
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdistan-Turkey, Sept 22 (Reuters)
- Turkish security forces killed three Kurdish
rebels and wounded two more in the eastern city of
Van, security sources said on Thursday.
The clash came hours after the rebel Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) on Wednesday extended its
one-month suspension of active operations until Oct.
3, the day Turkey is due to begin long-awaited
accession talks to join the European Union.
Anti-terror police launched an operation to track
down rebels inside the city after a police station
there came under fire at the weekend and two
officers were killed.
Security forces tracked down a group of seven PKK
rebels in the city late on Wedensday, killing three,
capturing two wounded while the other two managed to
escape, the sources said.
Turkey has passed laws to improve its shaky human
rights record under pressure from the EU, but baulks
at anything but a military solution to dealing with
the PKK.
Rebel attempts to link their struggle to Turkey's EU
bid, such as suspending operations till the Oct. 3
start date for Turkish EU accession talks, have
fallen on deaf ears in Ankara.
After more than 20 years of conflict that has killed
some 30,000 people, Turkish forces have failed to
completely quell the PKK's armed campaign for
home-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
Turkish leaders complain the PKK has an effective
safe-haven in the mountains of northern Iraq from
where rebel commanders direct operations into
Turkey.
Ankara has repeatedly asked the United States to use
its forces in Iraq to move against the PKK bases,
but U.S. military officials admit they are too tied
down fighting the insurgency.
Turkish newspapers said on Thursday the U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had told Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in talks in New York
that the U.S. administration agreed with Turkey's
stance on the PKK.
"It is a problem of timing, not a problem of
principle," newspapers quoted Rice as telling Gul.
Turkish and U.S. experts met in Ankara last week and
agreed to move against PKK finances which they said
reached $100 million a year, mostly money collected
from Kurds in Europe, drug trafficking and people
smuggling, the Hurriyet newspaper said on Thursday.
Reuters
Top |
® 