KEY POINTS:
CIZRE - Turkish troops have killed 20 Kurdish guerrillas in a major operation against separatist rebels in eastern Turkey, army sources said.
The operation involved 8000 troops with air support in the eastern province of Tunceli, hundreds of kilometres from the Iraqi border. The source gave no details on army casualties.
Ankara also feels threatened by Kurdish separatists using bases in mountainous northern Iraq for attacks on Turkey, and Turkey's foreign minister said a military solution was still on the table to tackle these rebels.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has killed about 40 people in the past month, including 12 soldiers in the latest major attack, and said it toook eight soldiers prisoner.
In Istanbul, police in riot gear and armoured vehicles scuffled with demonstrators calling for the PKK's jailed leader to be freed and protesting against an incursion into northern Iraq. Protesters hurled petrol bombs after some 200 people marched chanting through the streets.
In nearby Izmit, three people at an anti-PKK demonstration were slightly injured by an explosion which bomb experts were investigating, the state news agency Anatolian reported. Other demonstrations were held across the country.
Ankara is under strong domestic pressure to deal with the PKK, but Turkish-Iraqi talks aimed at preventing a cross-border incursion collapsed on Friday after Ankara rejected Iraq's proposals as insufficient.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by fighters, helicopter gunships and tanks on the border for a possible offensive against an estimated 3000 rebels based in Iraq.
The army sent more equipment to the border on Sunday although army sources said preparations were almost complete.
Alongside diplomatic initiatives, Turkey has used tough rhetoric to try to press the United States and Iraq into action. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday a military operation could be carried out whenever it was needed.
"For example, we can use or continue to use diplomatic means, or resort to military means. All of these are on the table, so to speak," Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said in translated comments on Iran's Press TV television channel.
"When it comes to fighting terror and terrorism Turkey will do everything it deems necessary," Babacan said.
Ankara has demanded Iraq hand over all northern Iraq-based members of the PKK, which is blamed for more than 30,000 deaths since the start of its separatist campaign in southeast Turkey in 1984.
But the central government has little control over semi-autonomous northern Iraq run by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), whose leader Masoud Barzani has vowed not to hand over anyone to Turkey.
"I will not hand over any person to any regional state no matter the cost, however, in truth, I will not allow any PKK official to use the Kurdistan region as a base or to be present here and threaten the security of Turkey," Barzani said in an interview with Al Jazeera television aired on Sunday.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who told him that diplomatic channels were being exhausted and Turkey was determined to root out the PKK from northern Iraq, state news agency Anatolian reported.
Ahmadinejad also told Iraq overnight that he supported a crackdown on the PKK but wanted a peaceful solution. Iran also has a Kurdish minority and has faced cross-border attacks by rebels, to which it has responded by shelling targets in Iraq.
The United States fears a Turkish incursion could destabilise the relatively peaceful north of Iraq and the wider region. It called for continued dialogue after the failed Ankara talks, at which it was also represented.
"We want to encourage this ongoing Turkish-Iraqi dialogue," said State Department spokesman Rob McInturff.
Erdogan is due to visit President George W Bush on Nov 5. Senior Turkish diplomats say Erdogan has given Washington and Baghdad a deadline for showing concrete results or steps to be taken on the Kurds and the Washington talks are the last chance.
- REUTERS
