Turkish FM holds phone talks with U.S., Iraqi counterparts

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held separate telephone conversations with U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, over Wednesday's attacks in southeast Turkey made by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turkish Anatolia news agency quoted diplomatic sources as saying on Wednesday. Sources said Davutoglu and Clinton had agreed to speed up bilateral as well as multilateral efforts to eradicate the PKK's existence in northern Iraq, according to the report. It said Davutoglu had urged his Iraqi counterpart to take concrete measures against the PKK. "It is time for action and solid steps, not condemnation," the report quoted Davutoglu as telling Zebari. On Wednesday, PKK members attacked simultaneously several targets in Cukurca and Yuksekova towns of the Turkish southeastern province of Hakkari, killing 24 troops and wounding 18 others. Turkish security forces launched a cross border operation into northern Iraq with ground forces, warplanes and helicopter gunships in the wake of the attacks. Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. More than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK during the past two decades.