Kurdistan Observer

TUNCELI, Turkey (Reuters) --Kurdish rebels from Turkey declared "defense zones" in regions of Kurdish northern Iraq on Thursday and warned Turkey they would defend them against any attack during possible turmoil in Iraq.

In a statement certain to anger close U.S. ally Turkey, the Kurdish rebels said they had made the declaration in anticipation of potential U.S.-led strikes on neighboring Iraq.

"During any attack on the region some forces, particularly Turkey, may want to liquidate the People's Defense Forces," the rebels said in a statement quoted by the Germany-based Mezopotamya news agency, close to the guerrillas.

"If either today or tomorrow there is an attack on our defense zones our defense units will immediately respond and will defend themselves to the end," the statement, monitored in the eastern Turkish city of Tunceli, said.

The rebels were known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) but now call themselves the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress or KADEK. They largely withdrew to northern Iraq after Turkey captured their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in 1999.

The rebels' statement did not say where the zones were, but the group is known to control remote parts of the region. Turkish security sources say the group controls some 40-50 villages in northern Iraq, mostly near the Iranian border.

Thursday's declaration was the latest example of jostling for position in northern Iraq, a region likely to play a major part in any campaign against Iraq.

NATO member Turkey fears Iraqi Kurds, who wrested control of the region from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War and are ostensibly protected by a U.S.- and British-enforced "no-fly" zone, may try to set up an independent state in the north in the event of a U.S. attack.

That could spur Turkey's restive Kurds to fight for an ethnic homeland in the region, Turkey fears.

Ankara has in recent weeks traded angry words with Massoud Barzani, leader of one of two Iraqi Kurdish groups that administer the enclave, over the possibility of Turkish troops invading the enclave if the United States hits Iraq.

Turkish forces have been fighting the PKK since 1984 in a conflict that has killed more than 30,000 people. Ankara says the group's name change and recent pledges to abandon their armed struggle for Kurdish autonomy are just meaningless ruses and has pledged to wipe them out.

Turkey already garrisons thousands of troops inside northern Iraq to attack PKK bases in the mountainous region.

Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have split control of northern Iraq and have frequently clashed with PKK guerrillas.

The KDP and PUK are also seen as potential allies if Washington uses military force to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whom it accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction.

Ankara has repeatedly asserted its opposition to U.S. military action in Iraq. As well as the fear of a Kurdish push for statehood, a conflict next door could also undermine Turkey's shaky economic recovery from recession.