Turkish troops boost forces aga

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: Re: Turkish troops boost forces against rebels Kurds
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl

        id VT6122; Sat, 27 May 1995 05:21:01 -0800

-------------- Forwarded from : nytmx at mit.xs4all.nl (NY Transfer) --------------


Turkish troops boost forces against rebels Kurds

    TUNCELI, Turkey, May 22 (Reuter) - Turkish military sources
said on Monday the number of troops in eastern Tunceli province
would be boosted to 45,000 as part of the army's bid to finish
off rebel Kurdish guerrillas.
    The Turkish foreign ministry said Ankara would pay cash
compensation to civilians whose property was damaged during
Turkey's six-week incursion into northern Iraq against the
rebels which ended three weeks ago.
    A 5,000-strong commando brigade was expected to arrive in
the mountainious Tunceli province on Tuesday, joining 40,000
troops backed by helicopters and tanks, the sources said.
    Both military and Kurdish rebel sources say  about 2,000
guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is
fighting an 11-year battle for control of Turkey's mainly
Kurdish southeast, operate in Tunceli.
    The Turkish army started an intensive operation against the
PKK in Tunceli last September, but despite frequent promises the
military has yet to wipe out the group or find regional
commander Semdin Sakik.
    Turkish troops killed 12 PKK rebels in two separate clashes
in southeast Turkey on Monday, state-run television said.
    They killed nine rebels in the Cudi mountains near the Iraqi
border and three others around Lice town in Diyarbakir province,
it added.
    The foreign ministry said in a statement ``damages of very
limited amount'' had occurred during the incursion into
Kurdish-held northern Iraq and the government had decided ``out
of humanitarian considerations'' to make cash payments to people
who lost property or their representatives.
    The payments would be made on Wednesday at the Habur
crossing on the Iraq-Turkey border, it said. It did not say how
much would be paid or how the damages would be assessed.
    More than 16,000 people have died since the PKK -- which
claims to have some 15,000 guerrillas throughout eastern and
southeast Turkey -- took up arms in 1984.
Reut13:51 05-22-95

Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service