Turkey Presses Offensive Against Re

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.cic.net>
Subject: Turkey Presses Offensive Against Rebel Kurds

Turkey Presses Offensive Against Rebel Kurds

Tunceli (Dersim), Turkey (Reuter - September 24, 1996) Turkish
security forces, including mountain commandos, pressed an air and
land offensive on Tuesday against separatist Kurdish rebels in
the eastern mountains.
     Military officials said troops backed by helicopters and
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels were engaged in heavy
fighting at several points in the rugged province of Tunceli.
     The state-run Anatolian news agency said troops launched a
major attack on positions near the remote Iraqi border in the
morning.
     Some 20,000 soldiers, backed by aircrafts dropping bombs and
U.S.-made Super Cobra helicopters, began on Monday to close in on
some 250 rebels who the military said were cornered in a forest
in the mountains of Tunceli province.
     Around 15 rebels have been killed in Tunceli in the last two
days, security officials said. There was no word of military
casualties.
     The anti-rebel push is also aimed at denying the guerrillas
food and ammunition supplies before the harsh winter sets in.
     In an apparent bid to divert the drive against the
insurgents holed up nearby, PKK rebels attacked a police post in
the well-guarded town of Tunceli overnight.
     "They tried to enter Tunceli but came across the police
special forces", governor Atil Uzelgun told reporters. "They
fled, leaving two dead", he said.
     Two members of the elite police unit were wounded.
     The 12-year-old conflict costs Turkey an estimated $8
billion a year and damages its image, but successive governments
have refused to discuss rebel demands for self-rule. More than
20,000 people have died.
     Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller on Monday reiterated plans for
a security zone in northern Iraq to prevent PKK infiltration from
bases across the border. Baghdad and other Arab governments have
condemned the proposed zone as a violation of Iraqi territory.
     Ciller tried to calm U.S. fears that Turkey would drop the
buffer zone and instead cooperate with Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein to fight the rebels in north Iraq. His forces have been
blocked from the area since 1991 by U.S.-led protection of the
Kurdish population.
     "We are not ready to cancel the security zone because we
fear the influx of refugees and the PKK has stationed themselves
right next to our borders", she said in New York.
     A cross-border drive into northern Iraq by 35,000 Turkish
troops last year failed to budge the PKK from the region after
six weeks of fighting.
     Security officials said the rebels' feared regional
commander Semdin Sakik, also known as "Fingerless Zeki", may have
crossed from northern Iraq in the last month bound for Tunceli.
     "Operations are continuing in the whole region, not just
Tunceli", Anatolian quoted armed force's chief Ismail Hakki
Karadayi as saying.
     The agency corrected an earlier report in which it quoted
Karadayi as saying 1,000 PKK fighters had been killed in
southeast Turkey since August 15. Anatolian later put the rebel
death toll at 460 for the same period.