Fri Sep 3, 2004 05:28 AM ET
ANKARA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Friday as saying Turkey was losing patience with its NATO ally the United States over its failure to crack down on Turkish Kurdish guerrillas holed up in northern Iraq.
Ankara has long urged Washington to send troops to crush an estimated 5,000 rebels believed to be hiding in the mountains of mainly Kurdish northern Iraq.
Erdogan told the Sabah newspaper in an interview that U.S. claims it was trying to curb Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq by non-military means were unconvincing.
"Our patience is wearing thin. We cannot just watch our people being martyred. We will do whatever is necessary (to combat the rebels)," Erdogan said.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has been fighting for 20 years for a Kurdish homeland in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. The conflict has killed more than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, including more than 60 in the past two months.
Clashes between Turkish security forces and PKK guerrillas have increased sharply in southeast Turkey since the PKK called off a unilateral six-year ceasefire at the start of June, though violence had never ceased entirely.
Washington views the PKK as "terrorists", but its forces are mainly focused at present on combating insurgents in central Iraq opposed to its occupation.
Turkey pressed U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit to Ankara in June to act against the PKK, but analysts say U.S. forces in Iraq may be reluctant to open a new front while they try to contain insurgencies elsewhere in the country.
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