LOC13:31
10:31 GMT
ISTANBUL, Feb 28 (KUNA) -- The Turkish Army has beefed up troop
concentrations along the border with neighboring Iraq in a move seen as a
prelude to launching a new round of attacks on Kurdish separatists' hideouts,
the daily Hurriyet said in its Saturday edition.
The newspaper quoted military sources as saying that convoys of tanks were
roaring in the direction of the border regions from the region of Shirnak,
southeastern Turkey
Observers said the military builup on the border would be followed with the
launch of a series of attacks on bases of the activists of the Workers Party
of Kurdistan, better known as the PKK.
They based their anticipation on the fact that the Turkish Army, over the
past years, launched wide-scale military offensives against the Kurds after
the onset of the spring season, when snow blanketing large areas of the
mountainuous regions start melting.
The Turkish Army maintains heavy presence in the city of Shirnak and
surrounding regions in southeastern Turkey. The city is populated by some 100,
000 people.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Washington and Ankara,
started an armed campaign againt the Turks in 1984, with the aim of
establishing an independent Turkish entity in southeastern Turkey. So far,
some 40,000 people have perished in tit-for-tat fighting.
The Kurdish guerrillas maintain bases and hideouts, dotting mountainuous
ridges, ravines and hills in the north of Iraq. (end)
ta.rk
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