A Kurdish guerrilla group based in northern Iraq said yesterday it was ready to work peacefully alongside the United States to help build a democratic Iraq. The Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PCDK), closely linked to the Kurdish rebels neighboring Turkey has fought for decades, said it was abandoning the armed struggle. â(We) will work jointly with the United States and democratic forces,â it said in a statement in the Turkish town of Tunceli.
| Good idea. Leave the hardware over there... |
The news will be welcome in Washington as it seeks to rebuild Iraqâs political and physical infrastructure after the war to topple Saddam Hussein. But the groupâs close links to the Kurdish rebels both Turkey and the United States class as âterroristâ will likely complicate any cooperation the group may seek with US forces. Kurdish sources say the PCDK was formed last year as an offshoot of the rebel group Turkey fights, known as the PKK or KADEK, and has perhaps 2,000 lightly armed fighters in northern Iraq who have sometimes clashed with other local Kurdish factions.
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Turkey keeps its own troops in northern Iraq to crack down on the rebels it has fought in a conflict that has killed more than 30,000 people since 1984. Ankara is under pressure from Washington and Iraqi Kurds to withdraw its forces but is unlikely to welcome any indications that the United States is negotiating with rebels Turkey has vowed to wipe out. |