Turkey Says US Ordered Arrest of PKK Leaders

The Turkish Army said yesterday the United States had ordered the capture of commanders of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq, where most of the group’s members are based, warning of an incursion into Iraq if Baghdad fails to curb the rebels.

Don't do that. You wouldn't like what would happen.

The United States “have issued a direct order for the capture of the leaders” of the PKK, Gen. Ilker Basbug, the army No. 2, told a group of journalists, Anatolia news agency reported. The PKK retreated to neighboring northern Iraq in 1999 following a unilateral cease-fire it declared after its 15-year campaign for self-rule which has left some 37,000 people dead. The rebels began sneaking back after they called off the truce on June 1, 2004, saying that Ankara had failed to respond in kind. Basbug said Turkey had the right to make a military incursion into Iraq to pursue the PKK if Baghdad failed to curb the group, Anatolia reported. Before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, when the Kurdish-held north was outside Baghdad’s control, the Turkish Army made incursions into the region to hunt down PKK militants, with tacit US approval and ground support from the local Iraqi Kurds.