PKK coders captured in cross-border operation

15 March 2012 / TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
Five Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists who encrypt messages of the terrorist organization's leaders and pass them on to its militia in the mountains were captured in a cross-border operation in northern Iraq, the Hürriyet daily reported on Thursday.
The captured terrorists are believed to have encrypted the orders of two deadly attacks last year -- one of which took place on July 14 in Silvan, Diyarbakır province, where 13 soldiers were killed and seven wounded when their unit, which was conducting a rescue operation to save three people taken hostage by the terrorist PKK, was attacked. The other incident was in Hakkari's Çukurca district in which 14 soldiers were killed.

The five PKK coders were tracked for six months by security units and captured in a cave in northern Iraq. Many electronic tools and equipment were also seized, Hürriyet claimed, adding that the cross-border operation was conducted last Sunday. The daily also reported that this was the first time the National Police Department's special ops teams participated in a cross-border operation.

The terrorists first refused to surrender and responded with fire to the calls of Turkish security units, but later put down their arms. Units seized several portable computers, mobile phones, programming books and DVDs explaining how to encrypt documents, many explosives and weapons. The captured terrorists were brought to Turkey by helicopter on the same day and are currently being interrogated.

Turkey has been conducting airstrikes on PKK camps in Iraq's northern mountains and inside Turkey since August of last year, following an increase in attacks on Turkish troops and civilians by the PKK. The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's largely Kurdish Southeast since 1984.

The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The group is labeled a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, which has supplied Predator drones to assist Turkey.
Source http://www.todayszaman.com/news-274376-pkk-coders-captured-in-cross-border-operation.html