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Kurdish Rebels Kill Four Turkish Soldiers

9 December 2005 -- Kurdish guerillas have killed four Turkish soldiers in clashes in a region of southeastern Turkey that borders Iraq, official Turkish sources reported today.

Turkish officials say two guerrillas from the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) also died in overnight clashes near the town of Guclukonak, in the Sirnak province, which borders Syria as well as Iraq.

Meanwhile, Robert Mueller, director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation promised international cooperation to restrict funding for the Kurdish guerrillas fighting for autonomy in Turkey.

Mueller, who is visiting Turkey as part of a tour of the region, said 165 Turkish police officers were being trained in the United States.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1994. Since then, over 30,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

The PKK ended a five-year cease-fire in August 2004.

Tensions in Turkey's southeast escalated in November after allegations that security forces were involved in a bomb attack on a bookstore owned by a former Kurdish guerrilla.

(AP/AFP/Reuters)

Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org