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Rebels free Turkish soldiers after diplomatic push

Eight Turkish soldiers captured last month by Kurdish guerrillas were released in northern Iraq on Sunday, a move which could ease public pressure on Turkey's government to launch a major cross-border incursion.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 00:13 November 5, 2007
  • Gulf News

Ankara: Eight Turkish soldiers captured last month by Kurdish guerrillas were released in northern Iraq on Sunday, a move which could ease public pressure on Turkey's government to launch a major cross-border incursion.

The release of the soldiers came a day after the Iraqi government vowed to hunt down Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants responsible for raids into Turkey.

President George W. Bush is due to discuss the situation with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington today. Turkish TV said the soldiers flew home in a military plane and talked to their families by phone after landing.

Fouad Hussain, head of the office of Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, said Iraqi Kurdish leaders helped in releasing the soldiers.

"This issue proved one thing, that the Iraqi Kurds and Iraqi leadership, they are part of the solution. And they want to have a good relationship and they work to have a good relationship with Turkish people," Hussain told reporters in Arbil. Abdul Rahman Chaderchi, a senior PKK member, said the eight soldiers were released without ransom or conditions as a message from PKK.

Minister's top aide and 14 others killed

Two carloads of gunmen ambushed a top aide to Iraq's Finance Ministry yesterday in Baghdad, killing him and his driver, police said.

The two were among 15 people killed or found dead in Iraq. The Finance Ministry had no comment about the attack on Qutaiba Badr Al Deen Mohammad, a Sunni. Ten other Iraqis killed were in Diyala.

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