Kurds Release Eight Turkish Troops

By DAMIEN MCELROY, The Daily Telegraph | November 5, 2007

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Kurdish guerrillas yesterday released eight Turkish soldiers who were captured last month during an ambush that prompted threats of a military invasion of Iraq.

The conscripts were handed over by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, also known as the PKK, which fights for a homeland in southern Turkey and has bases in the mountainous region across the border in Iraq.

Intense diplomatic efforts to avert military action, which would destabilize the only settled part of Iraq, are set to culminate today when Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey meets President Bush in Washington.

Mr. Erdogan said he wanted Mr. Bush to outline concrete measures to suppress the PKK, which has killed more than 40 Turkish troops in recent weeks.

"Our visit comes at a time when [Turkish-American] relations are undergoing a serious test," Mr. Erdogan said. "We have run out of patience with the terrorist attacks being staged from northern Iraq." Meanwhile, Prime Minister al-Maliki of Iraq pledged Baghdad would do all "within its capacity" to restrict PKK movements. His carefully worded statement appeared to allow room for action by the American-led coalition against the PKK in a region that has been outside the remit of official forces for many years.

The dispute did not derail a meeting of Iraq's neighbors in Istanbul over the weekend.

Instead, the summit heard the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, divert from his prepared speech to launch a blistering attack on Iran's role in promoting sectarian division in Iraq. The prince said Shiite countries must help Sunnis and Sunni countries must help Shiites.

Western diplomats said Iran had tried but failed to play a "wrecking" role at the summit by opposing plans to coordinate international support for Iraq.

[Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that 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.]