| Iraqi authorities have set up more checkpoints to restrict the movement of Kurdish rebel fighters and cut supply lines to their mountain hideouts, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Wednesday. Zebari also said Iraq was making “intensive efforts” to free eight Turkish soldiers captured by guerrillas from the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in fighting in southern Turkey. “We are expecting to solve this matter, because these talks, which are going on through indirect parties, have reached an advanced level,” he told a news conference in Baghdad with his visiting Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki. Iraq is under mounting pressure from Turkey to take action against the PKK, which has an estimated 3,000 fighters in remote bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. |