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From Kurdistan-Iraq, Kurdish PKK warns
Turkey and Iran
3.5.2006
By Shirko Abdullah
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RANIYAH,
Kurdistan-Iraq, May 3 (Reuters) - A senior Turkish
Kurd rebel commander on Wednesday threatened to
retaliate if Turkey or Iran attacked guerrilla bases
inside Iraq.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), based in the far
northeast of Iraq, accuses Turkey and Iran of
massing forces near their borders with Iraq and
mounting coordinated operations against the rebels
by troops backed by tanks and artillery.
"If Iran and Turkey continue attacking the bases of
the PKK or other Kurdish factions, the PKK will
launch a guerrilla war against Turkey because the
PKK has forces based in Turkish areas," Murat
Karayilan, a senior PKK leader told a news
conference in the town of Raniyah.
More than 30,000 people have been killed since the
PKK began its fight for a Kurdish homeland in
southeast Turkey in 1984. The PKK has in the past
launched bomb attacks in Turkish cities and tourist
resorts as well as fighting troops in the mountains.
Turkey and Iran are wary of the autonomy Iraqi Kurds
have consolidated since the 2003 Iraq war and fear
it might lead to more unrest among their own large
Kurdish populations.
Iraqi defence officials and the Iraqi Kurdish
administration say Iranian forces have twice entered
Iraq in the past two weeks to attack Iranian Kurdish
rebels allied to the PKK.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month
tried to ease Turkey's concerns that instability in
Iraq was threatening its security, pledging
continued support for Ankara's fight against the PKK,
branded terrorists by Ankara and Washington.
TURKISH CONCERN
NATO member Turkey has voiced concern that the
conflict in Iraq is allowing the PKK to launch more
attacks against its forces in the country's
southeast, and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has
urged Washington to help more.
Some 5,000 PKK rebels are believed to be operating
out of camps in the mountains of northern Iraq.
In the last two years, the PKK has also fallen foul
of Iran as Tehran and Ankara began to implement
security cooperation agreements in which the two
sides pledged not to support rebels from their
neighbour.
PKK violence tapered off following the capture of
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999. But it has
ticked up again since the rebels called off a
unilateral ceasefire in 2004.
Karayilan said the PKK was not operating in Iran but
noted that its Iranian wing had bases along the
Iraqi-Iranian border.
The Iraqi government, already overwhelmed by an
insurgency and rising sectarian tensions, has played
down the tensions.
"Yes, there were some transgressions. But we don't
think that there is a threat or the possibility of
major violations," said Iraqi Foreign Minister
Hoshiyar Zebari, himself a Kurd.
"This must be solved through diplomatic channels.
The Foreign Ministry will try to resolve the issue
with the Iranians," he told parliament in Baghdad on
Wednesday.
Iraqi Major General Abdul-Aziz Mohammed of the
Defence Ministry said on Tuesday the first Iranian
incursion was on April 21 and the second on April
26, when troops crossed 5 km (3 miles) inside Iraq
and shelled targets.
The PKK said Tehran was retaliating for an ambush
raid by its Iranian wing PJAK, which it said killed
five Iranian soldiers. Iran on Monday denied reports
of the April 21 incident and has yet to comment on
the later reports from Iraq.
Reuters
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