ANKARA Ñ Kurdish insurgents have renewed attacks in Turkey.
Turkish officials said Kurdish insurgents based in Iraq and Iran have
been infiltrating Turkey and attacking civilian and military targets. They
said the focus of the attacks have been the province of Bingol in Southeast
Anatolia.
Ankara has quietly blamed the United States for the resurgence of the
PKK attacks. Turkish officials said the U.S. military in northern Iraq has
been meeting and coordinating with PKK insurgents as part of an effort to
undermine neighboring Iran.
Last week, insurgents believed connected to the Kurdish Workers Party,
or PKK, raided the village of Yenikoy in Bingol, located 900 kilometers
southeast of Ankara, Middle East Newsline reported. Officials said the PKK insurgents killed four
villagers.
Bingol governor Huseyin Cos said the PKK members abducted five villagers
on Thursday. Four of them were later killed and a fifth was severely
injured.
It was the second major PKK attack in three days. On Tuesday, PKK gunmen
opened fire on a convoy that contained the governor of the province of
Tunceli, Ali Akyuz. Two soldiers were killed in the ambush.
Turkey and the PKK fought a 15 year war that ended in 1999 after the
capture of the movement's leader Abdullah Ocalan. Over the last few months,
however, the PKK has undergone a resurgence as an estimated 5,000 fighters
have obtained training and weapons in northern Iraq.
On Tuesday, Turkey announced that it and the United States have resolved
a crisis sparked by the U.S. military's capture of 24 Turkish military
personnel on July 4. Both countries issued a statement that pledged to
increase military cooperation and coordination in northern Iraq.
