BINGOL, Turkey - The military has launched its largest operation against Kurdish guerrillas in southeastern Turkey with 39,500 troops tracking down about 450 rebels, the Anatolia news agency said Wednesday. The soldiers have killed 35 insurgents since the beginning of the operation on April 23 in southeastern provinces of Bingol, Tunceli, Elazig, Diyarbakir and Mus, it said. The military traditionally steps up its fighting against the guerrillas in spring, taking advantage of good weather conditions, but this operation was the biggest in terms of the number of troops and area since 1984, when fighting broke out.

Brig. Gen. Hayri Kivrikoglu said in Bingol on Wednesday that the operation is being directed by 24 generals in an area of 16,000 square kilometers (6,400 square miles). About 37,000 people have died in Turkish-Kurdish clashes since the guerrillas began fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey. According to another report, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) denied allegations by one of its former commanders that it was behind the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986.

The PKK had nothing to do with the murder of Olof Palme, its political branch, the Kurdistan Liberation Front said in a statement from its office in Stockholm. This is staged, a provocation fomented by the Turkish state, the front added. Former PKK Commander Semdin Sakik was quoted Tuesday as saying the PKK assassinated Palme. Quoted by the newspaper Sabah, Sakik said the PKK's reason for wanting to kill Palme was that the Swedish Parliament had passed a bill calling for the expulsion of people deemed terrorists, and that under the legislation eight PKK members were kicked out of Sweden. Sakik was captured by Turkish forces April 13 in northern Iraq and brought back to Turkey where he has been undergoing interrogation ever since.

(AFP)