Kurdish guerrillas in Turkey ramp up attacks, possibly sensing opportunity in ... - Washington Post

The rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has benefited from past upheaval and power vacuums in the region, notably after the 1991 Gulf War and the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in a U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Iraqi Kurds consolidated their own mini-state in northern Iraq, inspiring those Kurds in Turkey who want self-rule.

In Syria, regime forces locked in a civil war with opponents of President Bashar Assad ceded control in some areas near the Turkish border to Kurdish fighters said to be linked to Turkey's Kurdish militants. Turkish analysts suspect the regime's seemingly passive conduct was aimed at stirring trouble for Turkey, which opposes Assad, by providing additional space for the PKK to organize.

Dogan News Agency video Monday showed Turkish security forces patrolling the town of Beytussebap, where militants attacked police and military posts, as well as apartment buildings that house security forces' families. An official is seen removing weapons from the rucksack of what appears to be a slain guerrilla, wearing an olive-green uniform and lying in a gutter. In another sequence, Kurdish townspeople are heard shouting slogans in support of jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan as armored vehicles roll through the streets.

Hurriyet newspaper reported Monday that police had fired into the air in the town to disperse a group of Kurds who wanted to take three rebel corpses away for burial.

It was the latest in a surge of operations blamed on the PKK, including a deadly bombing near Syria on Aug. 20 that intensified questions about the security of Turkey's borders in an unstable region and the possible involvement of outside actors. Turkish officials have not ruled out possible Syrian or Iranian involvement in the bombing, which killed eight people.

Turkey's President Abdullah Gul on Monday condemned what he called the "separatist terrorist organization" for the attack in Sirnak province.

"The internal and external supporters of this shameful game will sooner or later understand that they have made a wrongful calculation and will be punished," he said. "It should not be forgotten that those who believe that a timely opportunity has arisen, will soon realize their great historic mistake and will be disappointed."

The PKK is conducting some of its most brazen operations since its 1990s heyday, though it is limited to hit-and-run tactics rather than seizing and holding population centers.

"More complications bring them more power because they are feeding from chaos," Umit Ozdag, a terrorism expert at the 21st Century Turkey Institute, a research center, said of the PKK. The group, which has been fighting since 1984, is defined as terrorist by Turkey and the West, but still retains the backing of many in the Kurdish minority, which comprises up to 20 percent of Turkey's 75 million people.