The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast of the country. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the two-decade conflict.

Turkish soldiers and an armored vehicle attend the cross-border operation in Iraq on February 22, 2008. (Xinhua/Anadoglu Agency Photo)

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2008)