KurdistanObserver.com
PKK Threaten to Increase Attacks Against
Turkish Troops
June 10, 2007
Kurdish rebels have threatened
to escalate attacks against Turkish troops unless Turkey ends its military
operations against the group.
Belgium-based Firat, a
pro-Kurdish news agency that Turkey says is a rebel mouthpiece, quoted the rebel
group as saying the Turkish military would "pay a high price" unless it stopped
offensives against it.
The military should
"immediately end operations, return its forces to the garrisons and not impede
democratic solutions" to end the conflict, Firat quoted the rebels of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as saying.
There has been a surge in PKK
attacks against military targets in southeast Turkey in recent weeks.
Turkey is growing increasingly
frustrated and has been building up its forces near the Iraqi border, raising
fears it might stage a cross-border operation. It is also carrying out several
offensives against rebels in the southeast of the country, moving troops to the
area from garrisons in other parts of the country.
The U.S. has warned against a
cross-border incursion, fearing it might drag northern Iraq, the country's
relatively stable part, into chaos. The Turkish military shelled suspected rebel
bases in Iraq's north this week.
The rebel group has been
fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984, in a conflict that has
killed tens of thousands of people. The United States and the European Union
brand the PKK a terrorist organization.
In recent attacks, suspected
Kurdish rebels detonated a roadside bomb in southeast Turkey late Saturday,
killing a Turkish lieutenant colonel, a major and a private.
Earlier this week, a similar
bomb claimed lives of four troops. In other attacks, rebels killed seven
soldiers at a Turkish military outpost in southeast Turkey last week. On May 24,
a bomb believed planted by the PKK killed eight soldiers.
