Mainstream news

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: Mainstream news
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl

(V-MailServer 2.20)
           id VT2825; Thu, 04 May 1995 19:31:40 -0800


Ciller says Turkish troops in Iraq down sharply

ANKARA, May 2 (Reuter) - Turkey has only three battalions left inside northern
Iraq in its drive againt rebel Kurds, Prime Minister Tansu Ciller said on
Tuesday.

This meant that only 2,000 to 3,000 of the original 35,000-strong force sent
across the border six weeks ago remained in northern Iraq, military sources
said.

"We presently have three battalions in northern Iraq and they will be withdrawn
as they complete their assignments," Ciller told her party's parliamentary
deputies.

Turkish forces crossed into northern Iraq on March 20 to strike at guerrilla
bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkey, which has come
under fire from some of its Western allies for the incursion, pulled out 3,000
and 20,000 soldiers in two rounds last month.

Ciller said the drive was "one of the most successful campaigns in Turkish
history." A military statement said on Tuesday the northern Iraq operation had
so far cost $66 million. It said it was confirmed that 555 PKK members were
killed in 43 days of fighting while 61 government soldiers were killed and four
were missing.

The military says the actual PKK death toll is higher because it was impossible
to recover many bodies in the rough mountains of the 14,000-sq-km wide theatre
of operation.

More than 15,000 people have been killed in 11 years of fighting between
Ankara's forces and PKK guerrillas.

The statement listed large quantities of weapons and ammunition seized from the
rebels in northern Iraq, including 1,000 rifles, 58 machineguns, 118 rocket
launchers, 3,500 RPG-7 rockets and 5,800 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.
The rebels were armed with recoilless guns, anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank
missiles and mortars, as well as sophisticated night vision equipment, mine
detectors and wireless sets.

"Considering that these weapons would have been used to kill innocent citizens,
the need for the operation and the benefits derived from it are obvious," the
statement said.

"These weapons must be exhibited to the whole world. They were stored to kill
innocent people," said Ciller.

Northern Iraq has been outside the Baghdad government's control since a Kurdish
rebellion after the 1991 Gulf War. The order established by Iraqi Kurdish
groups has largely collapsed in recent months because of a feud among rival
movements.

Kurds say not responsible for airline office fire

COPENHAGEN, May 2 (Reuter) - Kurdish militants demanding an independent
homeland denied on Tuesday that they firebombed the Copenhagen office of
Turkish Airlines.

The Kurdistan National Liberation Front (ERNK) said in a statement that it had
nothing to do with the attack on Monday.

Police said three men smashed the office windows with stones and hurled petrol
bombs into the building. A small fire was put out and there was damage but
no-one was injured. Three men were seen running away from the city centre
office, police said.

Turkish Airlines blamed the action on rebel Kurds fighting for an independent
Kurdistan. But an ERNK spokesman told Reuters: "We did not have anything to do
with the attack."

ERNK, the political wing of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which wants a
separate Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey, opened an office in Copenhagen
on April 25.

Turkish buildings in Copenhagen were last subjected to attacks believed to have
been the work of rebel Kurds in November 1993. Similar attacks have been staged
in recent weeks on Turkish sites in other western European cities.