Kurdish PKK rebels says captive soldiers held in Turkish territory

ANKARA, (AFP) - The separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said Thursday through a pro-Kurdish news agency that eight Turkish soldiers it captured last Sunday are being held in Turkish territory.

The PKK said in a statement that the soldiers were being "held in guerrilla areas in northern Kurdistan" -- PKK parlance for Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey.

The statement was carried on the Belgium-based Firat news agency's web site.

The eight soldiers were taken prisoner after an ambush Sunday against a military unit near the Iraqi border in which 12 other soldiers were killed.

The news agency, generally seen as a mouthpiece for the PKK, released photographs of the soldiers on its Internet site on Tuesday.

Its report said the PKK announcement was in reaction to a statement in Ankara by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, who said the United States was "doing what it can" to obtain the soldiers' release.

The statement said it had received "requests for meetings" with the captives but that "such requests at this stage are inappropriate for the safety of the soldiers' lives."

More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.

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