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No casualties in Turkish attack on northern Iraq: PKK

A leader of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party yesterday acknowledged the Turkish military's attack on the group's bases inside Iraq after initially denying it, but said there had been no casualties.

On Saturday, Turkey said it had inflicted heavy casualties on a group of "50 to 60 terrorists" inside northern Iraq, and the PKK leader denied there had been any attack that day.

But in his latest comment, again speaking under cover of anonymity, the rebel leader acknowledged the strikes but denied they had caused casualties.

"There were helicopter strikes along the [Iraq-Turkey] border, but we suffered no casualties," he said.

A number of Iraqi Kurdish officials from northern Iraq had also denied the Turkish attack took place.

The Kurdish regional government of northern Iraq and Baghdad have yet to comment officially on Ankara's claims.

Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported that combat helicopters had targeted various locations in a bid to prevent Kurdish rebels from returning to their bases inside Iraq.

Speaking by telephone, the rebel leader said the PKK is "keen to resolve the crisis" and urged Ankara to consider a conditional ceasefire offer made by the group in October after its guerrillas ambushed and killed 12 Turkish soldiers.

Ankara rejected the ceasefire offer and last month received the backing of parliament to launch a cross-border incursion against PKK rear bases inside northern Iraq's Kurdish region.

But the Turkish military held back following lobbying by Washington and Baghdad, while Ankara warned that it still retained the option of a military strike.

Among other conditions laid down by the PKK in its ceasefire offer, the group demanded that Ankara admit the rights of Kurds in Turkey in its Constitution.

It also wants top leaders of the rebel group in Turkish prisons to be released.

"If these conditions are met, we can give up arms," the ceasefire statement said in October.

The rebels also want Kurdish culture and language acknowledged by the Turkish Constitution, in addition to a general amnesty for their fighters.
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