TUNCELI, Turkey
(Reuters) - Turkish military officials said Friday that fighting
had intensified between rival groups in the neighboring Kurdish-held
enclave of northern Iraq. Ankara keeps a military presence in
the enclave -- which Iraqi Kurds wrested from Baghdad"s grasp
after the 1991 Gulf War -- to fight the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK). The PKK has waged a 16-year-long campaign for autonomy
in Turkey"s mostly Kurdish southeast. Its leader, Abdullah
Ocalan, is in prison in Turkey under sentence of death. A Turkish
military official told Reuters that more than 100 people had been
killed in combat between the PKK and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK). PUK officials could not be reached for comment. Ankara
limits journalists crossing its border into northern Iraq, making
independent confirmation of reports of fighting there difficult.
But according to a variety of different sources, PKK guerrillas
are involved in heavy fighting with a rival group led by local
leader Jalal Talabani. "According to the information reaching
us the PKK has lost more than 100. There are uncertainties about
the PUK figures but they are in the region of 50," the official
said. The clashes between two groups that once lived in relative
peace suggest changing balances in the region, which the United
States patrols by air with British support to prevent the troops
of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein reimposing control. The
Turkish official
denied PKK claims that its troops were acting as advisors and
providing logistical support to the PUK. "That is out of
the question. Turkey is not a party to this," he said. The
fighting is taking place in mountains close to the northern Iraqi
border with Iran.
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