PKK leaders said the Turkish army was still building up forces in Iraq from Semdinli inside Turkey with help from its Iraq-based Kurdish allies. A senior PKK commander told a European-based Kurdish TV channel that fighting was widespread in the mountainous region. But another military official in Ankara and spokesmen for Turkey's allies denied the report. Fighting has died down between Turkish troops and the PKK inside Turkish territory since rebels withdrew in obedience to orders from their condemned leader Abdullah Ocalan. Ocalan is awaiting the result of his appeal to a European Court against a Turkish death sentence and seeks to turn his organization into a political force to win cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey.
Turkish authorities dismiss the strategy as a ploy.
Back to Headlines 2. The site of two ancient cities is about to be drowned. A dam across the Euphrates river will create an artificial lake to meet the demand for hydroelectric power for southeastern Turkey. But the dammed waters will flood much of Zeugma in the coming weeks. Of course, instead of hunting in grandma's attic, these archeologists are hunting in civilization's basement for pieces of human identity.