Kurdish rebels

Diyarbakir, Turkey

Turkish troops have found Kurdish militant bases in the mountains near the Iraq border, raising fears of renewed separatist fighting, The Washington Post reported this week. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, ended a 15-year insurgency against Turkey in 1999 and retreated to northern Iraq, which at that time was under a U.S. and British “no-fly zone” to protect the Kurds from Saddam Hussein. Now, though, many of them have returned from Iraq, and some have already clashed with Turkish troops. “It looks like five years of a calm, peaceful environment are turning into another conflict,” said Kurdish activist Giyasettin Sehir. The PKK is classified by the State Department as a terrorist group.

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