ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to support any Turkish military incursion in Iraq to rout Kurdish terrorist bases there after a suicide bombing in Ankara blamed on the militants left seven people dead.
Upping the pressure on Baghdad, the Turkish foreign ministry called on Iraqi authorities Thursday to act against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK) holed up in bases in the north of the conflict-torn country.
"We expect urgent and resolute measures," foreign ministry spokesman Levent Bilman told a news conference here shortly after reports of more violence with a landmine explosion attributed to the PKK killing six soldiers and wounding 10 others in Turkey`s southeast.
In a television interview late Wednesday, Erdogan said his government would secure parliamentary authorisation if the army sought to conduct a cross-border operation targeting PKK bases.
"It is out of the question for us to disagree on this issue with our... soldiers," Erdogan told the private ATV network. "When the time comes, we will take the necessary step, there will be no delay."
Officials said the method of Tuesday`s bomb attack in Ankara and the type of explosives used tallied with past practices of the PKK, which has been fighting the Ankara government since 1984 for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country.
Turkey says thousands of PKK rebels have found refuge in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, where it says local leaders tolerate and even support the rebels.
Ankara says the PKK enjoys unrestricted movement in Iraq`s mountain enclave and obtains weapons and explosives for attacks inside Turkey. It has long pressed Washington and Baghdad to stamp out the PKK in Iraq and has threatened to do so itself if there is no action.
Violence in southeastern Turkey increased after the army said last month that it had launched large-scale operations against the PKK in what has become an annual event as the spring thaw makes it easier for rebels to infiltrate across the frontier.
Local security sources said six Turkish soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded when PKK rebels set off a remote-controlled landmine during a security sweep in Sirnak province.
The explosion occurred about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border with Iraq, the sources said.
The PKK has denied any involvement in Tuesday`s bombing in Ankara, which also left 121 people injured, but Turkish newspapers reported Thursday that the bomber was a former far-left militant believed to have joined the Kurdish insurgency.
Guven Akkus, 28, once affiliated to the ultra-leftist Union of Revolutionary Communists of Turkey (TIKB), switched to the PKK after he was jailed for two years pending trial over May Day violence in 1996, the reports said.
In a statement posted on a far-left Turkish Internet site, the TIKB denied any involvement with Akkus or the Ankara explosion.
Other than fighting Turkish security forces, the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, has also carried out suicide bombings.
A group calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) claimed responsibility for a string of bombings of civilian targets last year and threatened to continue hitting the tourism sector, which attracts millions of holidaymakers every year.
Turkish officials say TAK is a front for PKK attacks on civilian targets; the PKK claims TAK is a splinter group over which it has no control.
The Turkish army regularly seizes from the PKK large amounts of plastic explosives it says militants bring across the border into Turkey from their bases in northern Iraq.
More than 37,000 people have died since the PKK picked up arms against the Ankara government.
05/24/2007 14:10 GMT