Turkish General Staff said on Friday that eight people were
kidnapped by members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK)
in eastern Turkey.
In a statement posted on its website, the general staff said an
investigation found out that the PKK militants kidnapped eight
people on July 31 in Baskale, a town located in Turkey's eastern
province Van.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the
United States and the European Union, has increased attacks on
Turkish troops in southeastern districts in recent months, which
provoked calls for an incursion into northern Iraq to crush the
PKK.
The rebels launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in
the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking decades of
strife that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.
(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2007)
