Kurdish rebel sniper kills Turkish

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Kurdish rebel sniper kills Turkish colonel

          id VT14576; Thu, 17 Aug 1995 22:59:24 -0800


Kurdish rebel sniper kills Turkish colonel

     MARDIN, Turkey (Reuter) - A Kurdish rebel sniper killed a
top gendarmerie officer in southeast Turkey, apparently to mark
the 11th anniversary of the guerrillas' separatist campaign,
security officials said Tuesday.
     A Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) sharp-shooter killed Col.
Ridvan Ozden, chief of the paramilitary gendarmerie forces in
Mardin province, with a single shot to the head Monday night,
the officials said.
     The attack was an apparent act of defiance to counter
government charges the PKK was close to defeat. The sniper also
killed two non-commissioned officers guarding the colonel.
     ``He is the highest-ranking member of the security forces
killed in the southeast in the last year,'' said an official at
the regional governor's office in the city of Diyarbakir.
     Officials said a pro-government village guard and 13 rebels
died in Mardin province in ensuing fighting which continued into
Tuesday afternoon.
     Security measures had been stepped up in the southeast in
case of a dramatic attack by the rebels to mark the anniversary.
Soldiers' leave in the region had been postponed.
     Ozden's colleagues at the Mardin gendarmerie headquarters
told Reuters their commander had been lured into an ambush by
the rebels and then shot by a high-powered rifle from mountains
up to half a mile away.
     A computer print-out listing wages to be collected Tuesday
lay on a table in the headquarters with only the dead colonel's
salary not signed for.
     More than 17,500 people have died in the rebels' insurgency
which was launched with the killing of two soldiers in separate
attacks Aug. 15, 1984. The PKK was then only a few hundred
strong.
     Turkish political and military leaders refuse to negotiate
with the rebels, whom they describe as ``terrorists.''
     Prime Minister Tansu Ciller has repeatedly said this year
the security forces were on the brink of ending the rebellion.
The guerrillas have continued attacks despite a big Turkish
incursion meant to cripple key PKK bases in northern Iraq in the
spring. About 35,000 troops took part.
     The PKK now has thousands of guerrillas in southeast Turkey
and northern Iraq, thousands of members and sympathizers among
Kurds in Europe and close links to a parliament-in-exile set up
by Turkish Kurds in The Hague in April.
     Ocalan is believed to have been based in Damascus or the
Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley in Lebanon since before 1984.
     Between 8,000 and 10,000 rebel prisoners in Turkish jails
have been on hunger strike since mid-July to urge the government
to hold talks with the PKK to end the conflict.

[First published on BosNet. Parts of article refers to Serbian relations
 with Ottomans. TRKNWS-L editor]

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 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)