Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    ANKARA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Interior Ministry Undersecretary Aydin Khalid said Thursday that Turkey and Iraq will sign an agreement to combat terrorism on Friday.

    Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay held a long talk in the Turkish capital of Ankara Thursday with his Iraqi counterpart Jawad al-Bulani, who arrived here Tuesday, on the agreement to join forces in fight against the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

    Khalid told reporters that Interior ministers of Turkey and Iraq would sign the agreement at 11:00 a.m. (GMT 0900) on Friday. He also said that the talks between Turkish and Iraqi officials are completed.

    According to Turkish diplomatic sources, negotiations of the two leaders focused on Turkey's demand to carry out military operations against terrorists on Iraqi soil. The Iraqi delegation were insistent that Turkey sought Iraq's permission to mount what is in publicly known as "hot pursuit" in Turkey.

    Upon his arrival in Ankara, Al-Bolani, who leads other top officers from the Chief of General Staff and the intelligence services, said, "We do not accept any person or any group that is against Turkey," noting that Iraq was willing to improve bilateral relations with Turkey in all fields.

    Bolani's visit follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in August that paved the way for the agreement.

    Turkish diplomats are rushing to convince Iraq to finalize talks and to sign the agreement that would enable the two countries to cooperate in fighting against terrorism.

    Ankara threatened military incursion into northern Iraq to strike the PKK base if Baghdad and Washington fail to curb the terrorists, who notably stepped up their attacks inside Turkey this year.

    Turkey has accused the forces of Massoud Barzani, heads of the autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, of tolerating the group and even supplying it with weapons, possibly including ammunition received from the United States.

    In June, the Turkish army said there were some 5,000 PKK militants in total, an estimated 2,800 to 3,100 of them based in northern Iraq.

    The PKK has increased attacks on Turkish troops in southeastern Turkey in recent months, which led to rising Turkish demands for an incursion into northern Iraq to crush the rebels based there.

    The group, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking decades of strife that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.