Oct 12 2000

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish security forces killed seven Kurdish separatist
rebels overnight during gun battles in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast, security
officials said Thursday.

Officials in Diyarbakir running an emergency rule zone in the region said three members of
the security forces had been wounded in a continuing operation against the rebels in the town
of Sirnak.

Fierce clashes between Turkish forces and fighters from Abdullah Ocalan's Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK), which began an armed struggle for autonomy in the region in 1984,
have killed more than 30,000 troops, rebels and civilians since then.

Fighting has tailed off sharply since Ocalan, facing a death sentence for treason, ordered his
fighters last year to end their military campaign and turn to attaining cultural and linguistic
rights.

Military officials say most PKK rebels have withdrawn into northern Iraq and Iran.

Separately, police in Diyarbakir said 13 suspected members of the militant Islamist group
Hizbullah appeared in court for preliminary hearings. Fifteen other alleged Hizbullah
members are being tried in Diyarbakir in connection with the killings of more than 150
people.

The Islamist organization emerged in the southeast in the late 1980s and was implicated in
the assassinations of PKK sympathizers, sparking charges of collaboration with the state,
charges Ankara hotly denies.

Authorities began a crackdown on the group early this year after killing its leader, Huseyin
Velioglu, in a shootout at his Istanbul home. Subsequent operations turned up scores of
bodies across the country, many bearing the marks of torture. Officials say they were victims
of the group.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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