By Xinhua,
Baghdad : General Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, has met with a senior Turkish general on dealing with Turkish rebels active on the border zone, the U.S. military said Saturday.
The talks on Friday with General Hasan Igsiz, the deputy chief of the Turkish General Staff, “centered on U.S. forces’ on-going assistance to Turkey in its effort to defeat” the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK, the military said in a statement.
“The PKK is a terrorist organization and has committed heinous crimes against the Turkish people. I’m committed to work with the government of Turkey and the government of Iraq to prevent further atrocities,” Odierno was quoted as saying in the meeting.
Odierno pledged U.S. support in the form of technical assistance and information-sharing to help its allies prevent further attacks in the near future, according to the statement.
The chronic cross-border attacks on Turkish targets by the PKK based in the rugged mountainous areas in northern Iraq have strained the relations of the two U.S. allies.
Turkey have launched air raids, artillery bombings and ground operations against the PKK in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
The U.S. is concerned that the clashes could destabilize the relatively peaceful situation in the Kurdish autonomous area, which has largely been spared the violence in Iraq since 2003.