 Turkey continues to assess a large Kurdish insurgency presence along the border with Iraq. Officials said the Kurdish Workers Party has been bolstering its presence in southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border. They said the presence has grown over the last year amid the migration of thousands of PKK fighters from northern Iraq. [Ret.] Gen. Osman Pamukoglu placed the number of PKK operatives in the Anatolia region at 7,000. At a conference on March 24 at Sakarya University, Pamukoglu said the PKK fighters have been hiding in the mountains in the southeast. "They have received military training in the mountain regions," Pamukoglu said. "They have also been indoctrinated."
| No masks. They're wearing uniforms. They're guerrillas, not terrorists. That's why I can't get to wrought up about them. |
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