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8 Turkish Prisoners Released

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By ASSO AHMED and BORZOU DARAGAHI, Los Angeles Times

Published: November 5, 2007

ZAKHO, Iraq - Eight Turkish soldiers captured by a Kurdish separatist group were released Sunday, helping ease a standoff between two of the United States' most trusted regional allies.

The soldiers were captured in an Oct. 21 ambush by the Kurdistan Workers Party, known by the acronym PKK, an attack that left 12 Turkish troops dead and ignited public outrage across Turkey.

The eight, all reportedly in good health, were flown to a Turkish army base.

The paramilitary operations by the Turkish Kurds have sparked a crisis between Turkey, a U.S. ally and NATO member, and Iraqi Kurds, the United States' most unabashed supporters in Iraq. Turkey has ordered 100,000 troops to the frontier and threatened to invade Iraqi Kurdistan to root out PKK camps in the mountains near the two countries' border.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to arrive in Washington in the coming days for talks with U.S. officials.

"What has happened is a new message from the Kurdistan government to Turkey, and it is a good step," Fuad Hussein, an Iraqi Kurdish official, told reporters in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on Sunday. "We are waiting for the Turkish response."

Iraq's Kurds occupy a Switzerland-size enclave all but separate from the rest of the country. The area controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government has become a haven for Kurdish opposition groups fighting for cultural and political rights in Turkey, Iran and Syria, which all have restive Kurdish minorities.

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