Turkey will not launch a major cross-border attack on Iraq-based Kurdish rebels before Nov. 5, the country's top military commander said Friday.

That's the day that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington to try and find a way to deal with the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

Turkish soldiers patrol a road near the Iraqi border on Oct. 20. At least 12 soldiers were killed by Kurdish rebels based in Iraq.
(STR/Associated Press)

Turkey has threatened to attack the rebels, who have been launching attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq. The situation came to a head after rebels killed at least a dozen Turkish soldiers on Oct. 20.

The U.S. has been urging restraint, because it fears a Turkish incursion would further destabilize Iraq.

Officials from the Iraqi government, the U.S. and Turkey have been meeting to try and defuse the situation.  

Turkey wants the U.S. and Iraq to close the bases used by the PKK and extradite the leaders.

Following meetings Friday, the top U.S. military commander in northern Iraq said he will do "absolutely nothing" to control the rebels, and Turkish officials said Iraqi proposals to control them were not acceptable.

Turkish politicians are under pressure to retaliate for the PKK attacks. Both the U.S. and Turkey say the group is a terrorist organization.

The PKK wants to establish a Kurdish homeland. There are many Kurds in Turkey, as well as Iran and Syria. The northern part of Iraq has been a semi-autonomous Kurdish area since the Gulf War, with the U.S. and Britain protecting it from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein until he was overthrown.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Kurdish part of the country has been the most stable.

 

With files from the Associated Press