Monday, February 13, 2012

Iran

Four Iranian Police Seized By Kurdish Militants

16 August 2005 -- Four Iranian police officers have been taken hostage in the northwest of the country near the border with Turkey by a group linked to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.

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August 16, 2005

Iran's police chief, Brigadier General Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam, said on 15 August that the four were taken hostage by the Pejak, said to be linked to the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK.

The PKK has been branded a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. More than 35,000 people have died in the conflict between the Turkish army and the PKK since 1984.

Tehran and Ankara are linked by an accord calling on Iran to fight the PKK and for Turkey to fight the People's Mujahedeen, an armed Iranian opposition group based in Iraq.

(AFP)

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