US Attorney General Michael Mukasey held talks with Turkish officials here Friday on joint measures to combat Kurdish rebels and the al Qaeda extremist network. Turkish-US cooperation against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), whose militants take refuge in northern Iraq, "has been active and successful and it continues," Mukasey told reporters.
The United States is supplying Nato ally Turkey with intelligence on PKK movements, which the Turkish army has used in five air strikes since December 16 on rebel positions in the mountains of northern Iraq. Mukasey would not elaborate on media reports that his talks focused on the possible capture and handover to Turkey of PKK commanders. Ankara and Washington, like much of the international community, list the PKK, which has waged a bloody 23-year campaign for Kurdish self-rule in south-east Turkey, as a terrorist organisation.
Mukasey said he also discussed measures against al Qaeda, which has stepped up activities in Turkey in recent years. "Our two countries can expand our collaboration on this and other judicial and law enforcement matters," he said.
Last month, police raided 18 locations in southeast Turkey on intelligence that a local al Qaeda cell was planning car bomb attacks. Four suspected militants and a policeman were killed in a gunbattle and 17 suspects were arrested. Al Qaeda was blamed for four truck bombs that hit two synagogues, the British consulate and a British bank in Istanbul in November 2003, killing 63 people.