From: sehari@iastate.edu (Babak Sehari)
Subject: KURDISH REBELS, SECURITIY FORCES CLASH IN TURKEY LEAVING AT LEAST TEN DEAD
Originator: sehari@class1.iastate.edu
Organization: Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa.
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 22:53:10 GMT

KURDISH REBELS, SECURITIY FORCES CLASH IN TURKEY LEAVING AT LEAST TEN DEAD

ANKARA, TURKEY (NOV. 11) UPI - At least 10 people, including six soldiers, were
killed in clashes between security forces and Kurdish rebels in southeastern
Turkey, the state radio TRT said Wednesday. 

The clashes occurred as Turkish troops continued mopping-up operations against
guerrillas of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq. 

The latest clash inside Turkey took place late Tuesday night at Baggoze, a
village near Eruh, some 540 miles southeast of Ankara, where PKK rebels killed
six soldiers at a military outpost, the state radio said. 

Security forces killed four Kurdish rebels in two separate clashes in the
southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir and Mardin, the radio said. 

In northern Iraq, Turkish troops continued mopping up operations in the
Haftanin, Shiva and Hakurk areas, where they earlier destroyed three major PKK
bases during an offensive. 

Military sources said the troops have cleared the captured PKK encampments of
mines, and destroyed military training facilities used earlier by the rebels. 

Turkish troops, who launched their offensive into northern Iraq Oct. 16, have
found guerrilla hideouts carved into several hillsides, and stocked with arms,
ammunition, food and medicines, reports reaching Ankara said. 

In a related development, Iran and Syria have accepted to send their foreign
ministers to Ankara for meetings during the weekend with Turkish Foreign
Minister Hikmet Cetin, ''to discuss the new situation in northern Iraq,'' a
Foreign Ministry official said. 

Another meeting is expected to be held in the Turkish border town of Hakkari
between Turkish military commanders and Iraqi Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani
and Massoud Barzani. 

Turkey wants the Iraqi Kurds to hand over PKK guerrilla commander Osman Ocalan,
reported earlier to be among Turkish Kurd rebels who laid down their arms and
surrendered to Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas allied to the Turkish forces. 

The Iraqi Kurds have so far resisted handing over Ocalan, who is the brother of
PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan, known among his followers as ''Apo.'' 

During the Turkish offensive, more than 1,000 Turkish Kurds are reported to
have surrendered to Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan on condition they
be allowed to move deeper inside Iraq, out of reach of the Turkish troops. 

Tuesday, Interior Minister Ismet Sezgin warned in a radio broadcast that PKK
rebels in northern Iraq could not escape, because they were surrounded by
Turkish troops. 

Turkey limited its offensive into northern Iraq to the border strip where the
PKK rebels had set up training bases, and has declared that it does not intend
to penetrate further south. 

But commanders in the Turkish General Staff believe the Iraqi Kurds are not in
complete control of areas further south, and PKK guerrillas who are allowed to
get away may later simply regroup and renew their attacks inside Turkey. 

However, Ankara has accepted that an Iraqi Kurdish force should be set up along
the border with Turkey, to prevent the Turkish Kurds from infiltrating
northward. 

Several Turkish newspapers have recently called editorially for Ankara to
recognize that the Iraqi Kurds have set up a de facto state in northern Iraq,
in areas where the Baghdad government does not have a military presence. 

But reports from northern Iraq say Barzani and Talabani fear that during their
meeting with Cetin later this week, the foreign ministers of Iran and Syria may
argue strongly against recognizing that the Iraqi Kurds have achieved a degree
of independence. 


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