Free Republic

BAGHDAD—Iranian artillery shelled three border towns Sunday in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish rebels are believed to be operating, an Iraqi Kurdish official said. The shelling hit the towns of Marado, Razda and Dolakoka and lasted for about two hours, said Azad Watho, a top administrative official in Sulaimaniyah city. Watho, who is administratively in charge of the towns, said the shelling had targeted the fighters of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or PEJAK, but had no more details. Sulaimaniyah, one of three provinces that make up Iraq's semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, is located about 160 miles northeast...

Iraqi officials say Iranian forces have fired artillery at several northwestern Iraqi villages suspected of harboring Kurdish rebel bases. The officials say Iran's military shelled the villages in Iraq's Sulaimaniyah province near the Iranian border for about an hour Thursday. No injuries were reported, but the officials say villagers in the region were terrified. Iran has not confirmed the artillery strike. Iraqi officials say Iranian forces appeared to be targeting bases of Kurdish militant group PJAK (the Party for Freedom and Life in Kurdistan). Iran blames the separatists for deadly attacks in northwestern Iran. Iranian officials say security forces killed...

ANKARA, Turkey — Iraq's president says he wants a "strategic" partnership with Turkey, including getting the neighboring nation's businesses to invest in his oil-rich but war-torn country. Jalal Talabani made the comments Saturday while wrapping up a visit aimed at easing the tension sparked by Turkey's eight-day military incursion against Kurdish rebels inside Iraq. Talabani, himself a Kurd, says Iraq wants "to forge strategic relations in all fields including oil, the economy, trade, culture and politics with Turkey."

Iraqi Kurd official says Kurds unequal US ally Kurdistani Nuwe Saturday, January 26, 2008 Document Type: OSC Translated Excerpt Iraqi Kurd official says Kurds unequal US ally The USG Open Source Center translates an opinion piece from a major Kurdish Iraqi newspaper containing quotes from a Kurdish official about the Kurdish-US relationship. The piece maintains that the alliance is one of convenience on the US side; is not as strong as that between Washington and Kuwait; and may not last if the interests of the two diverge. [This disillusionment may derive from the green light the US has recently given...

CIZRE, Turkey: The Turkish Army on Sunday warned Iraqi Kurds not to shelter Kurdish rebels fleeing its military offensive in northern Iraq, as Baghdad labeled the incursion a "threat" to its sovereignty. As fighting intensified, the army said it had killed another 33 militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), taking the rebel toll, according to Turkish figures, to 112 since the cross-border incursion began Thursday evening. PKK rebels "are trying to flee southward in panic," the general staff said in a statement. "Local Iraqi groups are expected to prevent members of the terrorist organization - the biggest enemy of...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it had reinforced its border security after Turkey launched an offensive in north Iraq against Kurdish rebels, a move an analyst said was likely aimed at stopping rebels hiding in Iran. Iranian forces have also often clashed in Iraqi border areas with rebels from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an offshoot of the PKK and which analysts say has bases in northeastern Iraq from where they operate against Iran. "Necessary measures have already been taken to reinforce our borders," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference....

'Dozens dead' in Turkish assault The ground assault followed an air bombardment Turkey's army says its ground offensive in northern Iraq has left five soldiers and dozens of Kurdish rebels dead. Turkey said its ground forces had crossed the border to tackle rebels late on Thursday after an air and artillery bombardment. PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the offensive is limited in scale and troops will return as soon as possible. The UN secretary general and the US have urged Turkey to show restraint in the offensive. A Turkish army statement said: "It has been understood from preliminary information...

Turkey launches ground operation in Iraq By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago Turkish troops have launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels, the military said Friday — a move that dramatically escalates Turkey's conflict with the militants. It's the first confirmed ground operation by the Turkish military into Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and it raised concerns that it could trigger a wider conflict with the U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurds. The ground operation started after Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed suspected rebel targets on Thursday, the...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Kurdish troops on Thursday encircled Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq and threatened to open fire in the most serious standoff between the two nation's forces since Turkey threatened late last year to go after guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party sheltering in Iraq . ADVERTISEMENT The standoff began when Turkish troops in tanks and armored vehicles left one of five bases they've had in Iraq since 1997 and moved to control two main roads in Dohuk province, Iraqi officials said. Kurdish soldiers from the peshmerga militia, which is loyal to the Kurdish Regional Government, moved to stop...

Walking through the Sur district of Diyarbakir with Abdullah Demirbas was like taking an old-fashioned mayoral stroll. As the day got under way in one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey, Demirbas passed through the narrow stone alleys, and one by one, shopkeepers stepped outside and waved. In return, Demirbas patted his chest and called out loud greetings. He stopped to compliment a cafe owner’s new door frames, asked a trio of women if they were satisfied with the trash collection and teased some kids about getting to school on time. Demirbas addressed most of the locals in Kurdish,...

It is seven months since Du’aa was stoned to death by a mob in the Kurdish hillside village of Basshiqa, northern Iraq ...Du’aa was taken to the home of Sheikh Sulaiman Sulaiman, the senior Yazidi figure in the village. ...A 65-year-old uncle, Salim, a science teacher, backed the head of their tribe, Omar Hamko, 73, in demanding that she be killed to “cleanse the family honour”. Her father would not countenance it. He proposed that she be married to a cousin and moved to Syria. ...When the uncle insisted that he would decide Du’aa’s fate as the elder sibling and...

ORLANDO, FL -- A small Florida company has turned one of the world's most popular high tech gadgets into a tool for American troops that can help save lives. "They speak with their hands -- a lot," US Army Sergeant Darren Williams said, remembering the times he worked to communicate with the local people during his year as a soldier in Iraq. "If you grab something, or if you say, 'Hold it.' Or, 'Pick it up. Pick it up.' You use that a lot, too," the Jacksonville-based Army recruiter said, waving his hands through a series of gestures. For Williams,...

BERLIN (AFP) — Germany on Monday deported to Iran an alleged Iranian secret agent who was jailed for life in 1997 for murdering four Kurdish dissidents in Berlin, officials in the German capital said. Kazem Darabi's Lebanese accomplice, Abbas Rhayel, has also been freed after serving 15 years in jail and was deported last week, prosecuting authorities told AFP. A lawyer close to the case had earlier said that both men were to be deported on Monday night. Darabi, 48, and Rhayel, a suspected member of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia movement, were jailed for life for the 1992 murder...

Not long ago, in a decrepit prison in Iraqi Kurdistan, a senior interrogator with the Kurdish intelligence service decided, for my entertainment and edification, to introduce me to an al-Qaeda terrorist named Omar. “This one is crazy,” the interrogator said. “Don’t get close, or he’ll bite you.” Omar was a Sunni Arab from a village outside Mosul; he was a short and weedy man, roughly 30 years old, who radiated a pure animal anger. He was also a relentless jabberer; he did not shut up from the moment we were introduced. I met him in an unventilated interrogation room that...

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes attacked dozens of Kurdish rebel targets in Iraq on Monday as part of a U.S.-backed campaign to chip away at guerrilla strength while avoiding the risks of a ground-based offensive across the border. The planes hit 70 targets that were "detected and verified by intelligence sources," the Turkish military said in a possible reference to the U.S. intelligence it is receiving. The Turkish government has fought for more than two decades against Kurdish rebels who seek autonomy in southeastern Turkey. For years, the PKK rebel group has launched attacks into Turkish territory from virtual safe...

A Kurdish author with asylum in Norway was sentenced in absentia in Iraq last month to six months imprisonment for blasphemy. Two years ago author Mariwan Halabjaee wrote "Sex, sharia and women in the history of Islam". Here he wrote that the prophet Mohammed had 19 wives, married a nine-year-old when he was aged 54 and that he took part in murder and rape. Last month a court in Halabja convicted him of blasphemy in absentia. Halabjaee has lived in hiding in Norway for one and a half years. The sentence states that he should be arrested upon his return...

Not long ago, in a decrepit prison in Iraqi Kurdistan, a senior interrogator with the Kurdish intelligence service decided, for my entertainment and edification, to introduce me to an al-Qaeda terrorist named Omar. “This one is crazy,” the interrogator said. “Don’t get close, or he’ll bite you.” Omar was a Sunni Arab from a village outside Mosul; he was a short and weedy man, roughly 30 years old, who radiated a pure animal anger. He was also a relentless jabberer; he did not shut up from the moment we were introduced. I met him in an unventilated interrogation room that...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S., Turkish and Iraqi leaders all held talks Monday about Kurdish rebels using northern Iraq as a launchpad for cross-border attacks into Turkey. President Bush chatted by phone with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while separately two senior Iraq national government figures met with the head of the country's Kurdish region. The diplomatic moves came after Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish separatist targets in northern Iraq on Saturday and Sunday as well as last week. Bush and Erdogan talked about the dangers of the Kurdish separatist rebels along the Turkish-Iraqi border, the White House confirmed. National Security...

Turkey's Terror Problem Is Ours Michael Rubin December 18, 2007 It's been nearly two months since the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) sparked an international crisis with a major attack inside Turkey, and more than six weeks since President Bush promised Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Washington would aid Turkey's fight against terrorism. Heady talk of intelligence sharing and cooperation followed and, indeed, may have been a factor in this weekend's Turkish air strikes on PKK targets in Iraqi Kurdistan. Yet at the same time the Bush administration -- more precisely its increasingly assertive State Department -- has embraced an...

U.S. military commanders in Iraq didn't know Turkey was sending warplanes to bomb in northern Iraq until the planes had already crossed the border, said defense and diplomatic officials, who were angered about being left in the dark. Americans have been providing Turkey with intelligence to go after Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. And a "coordination center" has been set up in Ankara so Turks, Iraqis and Americans can share information, two officials said Tuesday. But defense and diplomatic officials in Washington and Baghdad told The Associated Press that U.S. commanders in Iraq knew nothing about Sunday's attack until it...

KURDS VS ARAB 'PALESTINIANS' IT PAYS TO BE ILLEGITIMATE & MURDEROUS "PALESTINIAN" THAN TO BE A LIGITIMATE PEACEFUL KURD   Dec. 2007   As the world's about to give yet another state [Jordan ain't enough?] for the [group of immigrant Arabs into Israel that call themselves as] "Palestinians", that have never behaved and do not merely fight for a 'homeland' which Israel was never theirs anyhow, but have their goal of eliminating Israel, ethnic cleansing and racist genocide, the poor Kurds still sink under oppression by Turkey, by Arab racism in: Syria, Iraq, and by Islamic fascists regime of Iran.   __________________________________________________________________________   THE KURDS REAL...

300 TURKISH TROOPS ENTER NORTHERN IRAQ OVERNIGHT -SENIOR IRAQI MILITARY SOURCE

Excerpt - ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey said dozens of its warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets as deep as 110 kilometres inside northern Iraq for three hours on Sunday, the largest aerial attack in years against the outlawed separatist group. Turkey's military chief said the U.S. gave intelligence and tacit approval for the raid. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. The rebels said two civilians and five rebels were killed. In the nighttime offensive, the fighter jets hit rebel positions close to the border with Turkey and in the Qandil mountains, which straddle the Iraq-Iran...

JIMMY CARTER THE CRIMINAL   Jimmy Carter - infamous worst ex US president that is largely at fault for the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran (by putting extra pressure on the Shah), ultimately resulting in 1) Islamic Republic of Iran's oppression of millions of Persians, and 2) the planet in peril at the hands of that nation's mullahs' nukes.   Jimmy Carter has his hands blooded in every single violent action being perpetrated by that Islamic republic on a daily basis since 1979, including the crimes against humanity like the massacres in the 1980's, the terrible persecution on minorities such as:...

via translation - The Turkish army confirms that bombed targets Kurds in Iraq ANKARA - Turkish fighter aircraft bombed during the night from Saturday to Sunday Kurdish targets in northern Iraq, has confirmed the Turkish army in a news release on its website. The air raids were aimed "Zap regions, Hakurk and Avasin, and the massive Qandil," which serves as a hangout for Kurdish rebel PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), said the General Staff of the Turkish army in its press release. The shelling began to local 01H00 (23H00 GMT) and all aircraft returned to their base in local 04H15 (02H15...

Quiz yourself on the Israeli Arab ["Palestinian"] conflict       1) When was the Arab immigration to [the historic Jewish land of] Israel -"Palestine" boosted?   A When they wanted to see Jewish holy sites. B When [anti French and anti British] Arab nationalism spread across the middle east. C When the Zionists Jews came and cultivated the deserted land.     2) What's [Arab "Palestinian" highest "national" icon] Yasser Arafat's country of origin?   A Israel ["Palestine"]. B Jordan. C Egypt.     3) Why were there --initially-- more Arab immigrants ["residents"] than Jewish immigrants (Arab majority)?   A Because...

Despite a veto from Baghdad, Iraqi Kurds have signed contracts with foreign firms to exploit their huge oil reserves which they vow will benefit the whole country. Strengthened by the autonomy enshrined in the Iraqi constitution, the Iraqi Kurdish authority launched a regional oil policy in August, signing deals with overseas companies, to first achieve self-sufficiency and later exportation. The authority has signed 20 contracts during the last three months and shows no sign of changing course, despite threats from the federal government to blacklist companies trading with the Kurdish region. "Iraq has more than 12 percent of the world's...

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi officials say Turkish helicopter gunships have attacked villages inside Iraq.

Some leftwingers are committed activists. Others are that way because, well, it's sorta the kewl thing to do and lots and lots of my friends are leftwing idiots so I just had to go along with the crowd and spout nonsense that I heard second-hand. Such was the case with the airhead liberal chick in the video above. Asked a semi-tough question as happened here and her circuits overload to the point she can only sputter some recycled idiocy about the REPUBLICANS! You have to wonder about our education system when folks like this airhead liberal chick can regurgitate...

Kurdish rebels have crossed into Iran to avoid Turkish offensive: ex-leader by Michel Moutot Sun Nov 11, 5:12 AM ET Thousands of Kurdish guerrillas have crossed the border into Iran to escape a threatened Turkish offensive against their mountain redoubts in northern Iraq, a former rebel leader said. When and if the Turkish troops arrive, they will only be "chasing shadows", Osman Ocalan, brother of jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, told AFP in an interview in his home in Koya in Iraq's northern Kurdish region. "I know that since last month thousands of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) members have crossed...

Baghdad's displaced Christians find a haven among Kurds Iraq: Churches are catering for locals and refugees alike, writes Michael Jansen in Suleimaniya. Dr Faleh parks snugly against the wall of a house in the narrow street of the old city near the Church of the Virgin Mary, the oldest Christian place of worship in Suleimaniya. A small plaque over the door to the church courtyard proclaims that the house of worship was built in 1862. Around the sunny courtyard are the rooms of the church's caretakers, who also look after the grass and roses in the garden under the watchful...

Who is behind Turkey's threat against the only Stable Region of Iraq + ? ------------ Turkey's current threats for military aggression inside the only Stable Region of Iraq, risking to destroy U.S. efforts to find a political solution for the Future of the country, hide a Mystery : Obviously, the too frequent and recurring pretexts about a few Kurdish clashes with the Turkish Military, (partly provoked f.ex. by Turkish actions against elected Mayors, etc), are not the real reason for which Ankara threatens to intervene now, with so much noise : - The forthcoming Referendum on the Future of the...

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Security forces killed a Kurdish youth and wounded four other people in northeastern Syria while breaking up a protest against a possible Turkish incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan, witnesses and Kurdish activists said on Sunday.

Turkey has closed its airspace to flights to and from northern Iraq, NTV television said on Thursday, as part of economic sanctions targeting groups supporting Kurdish militants operating in northern Iraq. NTV gave no source for its report and it was not immediately clear whether the reported ban would affect U.S. military planes operating between NATO member Turkey and Iraq. Ankara is furious with the autonomous Kurdish administration of northern Iraq for failing to crack down on PKK militants who are battling Turkish troops near the Turkish-Iraqi border.

Iraqi officials asked for Iran’s help on Wednesday in negotiating a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Turkey over Kurdish guerrillas who have been using northern Iraq as a base to stage raids on Turkish troops across the border....Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq met with the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, on Wednesday and asked him to intervene on Iraq’s behalf at the meeting. “The prime minister asked the Islamic Republic to present their full support to Iraq during the Istanbul meeting and also to participate in solving the border crisis between Turkey and the P.K.K.,” a statement...

Members of the Kurdish Community will hold a peaceful protest in front of the Turkish consulate against the Turkish threats of southern Kurdistan, KurdishMedia.com has learnt from the organisers on Tuesday. The protest is held at 6300 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048 on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 between the hours of 12:00 (noon) – 3:00 pm to denounce the recent aggression and threat of invasion of the territory of Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraqi Iraq.

Syria's oppression of the KurdsThe Kurds nominate Syria for regime change.The most successful Communist leader in the Arab world, Khaled Baqdash, was a Syrian Kurd. As many reporters have been noting in the last few days, ... http://www.slate.com/id/2097493/ Mourners of Stampede Victims Riot in Syria - U.S. ...Mourners of Stampede Victims Riot in Syria, Hundreds at a funeral for people ... One of the teams involved, Al-Jihad, is a predominantly Syrian Kurdish ...http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,114130,00.html Kurdish Unrest Spreads in Syria; Up to 15 Dead, Scores Wounded ...Kurdish Unrest Spreads in Syria; Up to 15 Dead, Scores Wounded ... The first few victims...

Islamic Republic of Iran's persecution of the KurdsYouTube - Save Kurds from Iranian Persecution-PDKI Shoresh "If there's such a thing as reincarnation, I must've been a ... Watch video - 2 min 58 sec - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WHZ74CkfeUThe Plight of Iran's Kurds [written 2004]http://www.mideasti.org/summary/plight-irans-kurds

Turkey: We Will Make Kurd Rebels Grieve Turkish Military Leader Pledges That His Forces Will Make Iraq-Based Kurdish Rebels Grieve By DAVID RISING The Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey Turkey's top military commander promised Saturday to make Iraq-based Kurdish rebels "grieve with an intensity that they cannot imagine," while the prime minister said his nation would fight "when needed," regardless of international pressure. The military chief, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, said Friday that Turkey would wait until Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with President Bush in Washington on Nov. 5 before deciding on any cross-border offensive. But Erdogan said his...

Turkish Troops Kill 64 Suspected Rebels Near Iraq Border Thursday , October 25, 2007 ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey is running out of patience and will not tolerate Kurdish rebels' use of Iraqi soil to launch terrorist attacks, President Abdullah Gul said Thursday. Turkey has threatened to stage an incursion into northern Iraq if Iraqi Kurds and U.S.-led coalition forces do not crack down on Kurdish rebels based there. Turkish troops have killed at least 64 suspects rebels this week, including more than 30 poised to attack a military unit on the border on Tuesday, Turkey's military said Thursday. A pair...

The immediate threat of military action may have lessened, but it is still a slow-motion train wreck. If the Kurds of northern Iraq do not quash the PKK, Turkey will and Turkey will be justified. But the fact that Turkey will be justified will in no way lessen the damage to long-term Turkish or Kurdish interests. JINSA has a long history with both the Kurds of northern Iraq and with Turkey - and we were not surprised to discover that in the period of American protection for the Kurds, Turkey emerged as the primary economic and social interlocutor for...

CIZRE, Turkey - Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships reportedly pounded Kurdish rebel positions along the Turkey-Iraq border Wednesday, broadening military operations against insurgents amid persistent fears Turkey will launch a major offensive inside Iraq. Turkish Cabinet members and military generals held a six-hour meeting in Ankara to discuss a possible operation in northern Iraq, but decided to recommend the government take economic measures first to force cooperation by Iraqis against Kurdish rebels. The state-run Anatolia news agency reported that Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters bombed mountain paths used by rebels to cross the porous border from Iraq and stage hit-and-run...

The Turkish Armed Forces have entered North Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish militants, Yeni Safak newspaper reports. According to the source, the Turkish special task force is conducting an operation to back helicopters, F16 fighters and artillery strike camps of the PKK (Kurdistan Worker Party). The troops invaded the Iraqi territory by approximately 50 km. According to the Turkish military, up to 3,500 Kurdish rebels are deployed in the area. Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that a military operation could be launched in North Iraq at any moment and Turkey would not ask for permission from the...

THE Bush Administration is considering air strikes, including cruise missiles, against the Kurdish rebel group PKK in northern Iraq. The move would be an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of that country to fight the rebels. President George Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by phone yesterday in an effort to ease the crisis. And Prime Minister John Howard says the tensions on the Turkey-Iraq border will not help the west's battle for democracy in Iraq. Mr Howard said there was some recent evidence that US forces were making headway in their battle against al-Qaeda in Iraq...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked positions of Kurdish rebels along the rugged Iraqi-Turkish border on Wednesday, the country's official Anatolia news agency reported. Several F-16 warplanes loaded with bombs took off from an air base in southeastern city of Diyarbakir, private Dogan news agency and local reporters said. Turkish artillery units had been shelling rebel positions Tuesday night in northern Iraq, a government official said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The strikes were in retaliation for a rebel ambush on Sunday that killed 12 soldiers and...

Iraq shuts down Kurdish rebel offices under threat of attack Philip Webster, Political Editor, and Tom Baldwin in Washington Times interview with Turkish Prime Minister | Transcript Iraq ordered the closure yesterday of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) offices in the country as pressure mounted on the Government of Nouri al-Maliki to clamp down on the hardline Kurdish separatists. “The PKK is a terrorist organisation and we have taken a decision to shut down their offices and not allow them to operate on Iraqi soil,” Mr al-Maliki said after talks with Ali Babacan, the Turkish Foreign Minister. “We will also...

The Kurds have “no friends but the mountains,” or so an old saying goes. It is hard for Westerners to grasp just how isolated the Kurds feel: They are hated by almost everyone in the region, and ignored by or unknown to almost everyone else in the world. That partly explains their fanatical pro-Americanism: A friend, at last! Israelis, perhaps, can relate. Iraqi Kurds, though, are much more aggressively pro-American than Israelis. They arguably take their pro-Americanism to the point of absurdity. Fake McDonald’s restaurants with names like “MaDonal” pop up in Kurdistan nearly as fast as real McDonald’s chains...

BAGHDAD - Turkey's foreign minister rejected any cease-fire by Kurdish rebels Tuesday as he met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to press them to crack down on the guerrillas. Turkish forces massed on the border and tensions rose over a threatened military incursion. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a Kurd, said Iraq's central government and authorities in its Kurdish autonomous region in the north would work together to deny the rebels freedom of movement, funds and representative offices. He did not elaborate. Iraqi officials have been saying that guerrillas with the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is known by...

<p>BAGHDAD | Deadly raids into Turkey by Kurdish militants holed up in northern Iraq continued to be the focus of urgent diplomacy on Monday.</p> <p>Arab nations joined the U.S. and Europe in urging Turkey’s government not to attack suspected guerrilla bases in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Kurdish separatists said they would stop their cross-border attacks if Ankara dropped its threats to launch an offensive.</p>

LONDON (AFP) — US failure to act against Turkish Kurd rebels based in northern Iraq threatens Anakara's close ties with Washington, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned in an interview published Monday. Erdogan, who begins a two-day visit to Britain on Monday, said the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was hiding behind the United States and Iraqi governments and using US weapons against Turkish forces. "We have told (US President George W. Bush) about this issue but have not had a single positive result," he told The Times newspaper in an interview given before a PKK ambush near the...