Turkish soldiers freed after diplomatic push

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Turkish soldiers freed after diplomatic push

By Selcuk Gokoluk

ANKARA (Reuters) - 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.

Washington has urged NATO-ally Turkey to refrain from sending in thousands of troops, saying it could destabilize northern Iraq and cause a bigger regional crisis.

President George W. Bush is due to discuss the situation with Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Washington on Monday.

"The eight soldiers in question returned (to) the Turkish Armed Forces on November 4," the chief of staff's Web site said.

Turkish TV said the soldiers flew home in a military plane and talked to their families by phone after landing.

Turkey wants leaders of the PKK arrested and the closure of camps in Iraq used as bases for cross-border attacks in their 23-year campaign for a homeland in southeastern Turkey.

Fouad Hussain, head of the office of Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud 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.

Turkey stepped up pressure on Baghdad to act against the PKK after guerrillas killed at least 12 soldiers and captured eight in an attack on a Turkish army post near the Iraqi border last month.

Fulll story, Source: Reuters/Yahoo