By JERUSALEM POST STAFFTurkey Kurds 88(photo credit: )
A senior Kurdish rebel commander has warned US authorities and Iraqi Kurds against helping Turkey in a possible cross-border offensive, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported Wednesday.
Cemil Bayik, a leading commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, issued the warning a day after two top US generals met the Turkish army's second-ranking officer to discuss measures to crack down on Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
"The United States, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party should understand that if we want, we can create instability and place their interests in danger," pro-Kurdish Firat news agency quoted Bayik as saying in reference to the two Iraqi Kurdish factions that run the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq.
Turkey has massed troops on its border with Iraq and is considering a cross-border attack against the PKK.
The United States considers the PKK a terrorist organization, and President George W. Bush told visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month that the US would begin sharing intelligence on the guerrillas.
"Bush has declared the PKK as the enemy and wants to eliminate the PKK through pressure and operations," Bayik said. "Our position in the face of these operations is clear; we will resist. We will never surrender."
No details were released on Tuesday's talks between Gen. James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Turkey's Gen. Ergin Saygun.
PKK guerrillas have killed more than 50 Turks since late September.
The United States worries that a Turkish incursion could bring instability to the north - a region that has been the calmest part of Iraq.
Turkey has complained for years that the US has not done enough to end PKK activity in Iraq's north.
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