Iraq Kurdish Leader Warns Turkey Over Buffer Zone

A senior Iraqi Kurdish official warned Turkey on Thursday against stationing troops inside Iraq and said such a move would not stop cross-border raids by Kurdish guerrillas.

New attacks on Turkish security forces by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels based in Iraq have strained ties between Baghdad and Ankara, which accuses its neighbour of not doing enough to combat the separatists.

Anger over PKK attacks is mounting in Turkey, and opposition parties are calling on the government to set up a buffer zone inside northern Iraq to prevent rebels from crossing the border.

"I think this (buffer zone) would not change the situation. This is also practically not easy because it's a mountainous region. Other alternatives should be found for the solution of the problem," Nechirvan Barzani, who heads the Iraqi Kurdish regional government, told Turkish state news agency Anatolian.

Turkey's parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a government request to give the military the green light to carry out operations against PKK bases in northern Iraq for another year, days after a cross-border attack killed 17 soldiers.

Another attack by the PKK that killed four police trainees and a civilian on the outskirts of the main city of Diyarbakir in Turkey's southeast has further put pressure on authorities.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday it was up to the military to decide on the buffer zone, although both government and army have downplayed such a move, which would anger its allies, the United States and the European Union.

Turkish civilian and military leaders will meet on Thursday to discuss measures to take against the PKK, and Turkish newspapers said the option of a buffer zone would be included.

Opposition nationalist parties, and retired generals have been floating the idea of setting up a buffer zone for at least two years, but have stepped up calls in recent days.

General Hasan Igsiz, deputy chief of Turkey's military staff, appeared to pour cold water on the issue.

"This is not as easy as some people think, and to implement it would not be as easy as some people think. We would have to hold the territory and we would loose mobility capability in the southeast," Igsiz told reporters on Sunday.

NATO member Turkey has staged almost daily airstrikes against suspected PKK bases in Iraq since the ambush on Friday, the worst single attack on the military in more than a year.

A similar attack on a border post last year led Turkey to launch a brief large scale land operation in Iraq.

Washington and Brussels are worried prolonged Turkish operations in northern Iraq would hurt the region.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, in a visit to Finland on Wednesday, said the mandate would be used solely against "pinpointed targets" of the PKK.

Turkey blames the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the EU, for the deaths of more than 40,000 people since it launched its armed campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.