THOUSANDS of Turkish troops backed by air power attacked Kurdish separatists in eastern Turkey again yesterday as part of a major drive launched last week to flush out a traditional rebel stronghold.
Sources in the region said the army was continuing an onslaught in the Hozat region, where Turkish forces on Monday cornered nearly 250 separatist Kurdish rebels in a forest.
Since the operation began, fighter planes and helicopters have pounded targets in the mountainous Tunceli province, 1,000 km south east of Istanbul.
Troops then attack rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) hiding in caves and forests.
Authorities yesterday said that the attack would continue until there were no more "terrorists" in the region, using their terminology for PKK rebels.
Turkey's top military commander, Gen Ismail Hakki Karadayi, told reporters in Erzurum, eastern Turkey, that operations were continuing throughout the cast and southeast of the country.
"One thousand terrorists have been killed since August 15th," said Gen Karadayi, who has been touring the area since Monday, together with other Turkish army commanders.
More than 22,000 people, including PKK rebels, security force members and civilians, have been killed in fighting in south eastern and eastern Turkey since 1984 when the separatist group launched its armed campaign for a homeland in southeastern Turkey.
At the same time, Turkish authorities are seeking means of preventing rebel incursions from Iraq, which is used by the PKK as a rear base and from Iran accused by Turkey of harbouring PKK camps.
Turkey is also seeking to persuade Tehran, which denies it is sheltering the rebels, to collaborate to suppress the PKK, whose activities from Iranian territory have increased in the region of Van near the border with Iran, according to Ankara.
Following an offensive by Baghdad allied Iraqi Kurds against a rival Kurdish group in northern Iraq in late August, Turkey said it was planning to create a security zone along the Iraqi border to prevent infiltration by PKK rebels.
Turkey's Foreign Minister, Ms Tansu Ciller, reiterated in New York this week that Turkey was still prepared to impose a security zone inside northern Iraq to combat PKK infiltration.
She was backtracking on remarks attributed to her in a New York Times interview that Turkey wanted President Saddam Hussein of Iraq to impose his authority on the north again and help it combat the PKK.
Delegates from the Council of Europe's committee against torture visited Turkey last week to inspect its prisons and police stations, the Council said in a statement in Strasbourg yesterday.
During its visit the delegation inspected several police stations, as well as three prisons to talk with prisoners who had been detained without charge.