A top Turkish general said on Tuesday the United States had given direct orders for the capture of rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leaders in Iraq, Turkish media reported. General Ilker Basbug, second in command at Turkey's politically influential General Staff, said Turkey had the right to stage an incursion into Iraq against PKK guerrillas as a last resort if no action was taken. "The United States has given the order for the capture of the leadership of the PKK terror group," state-run Anatolian news agency quoted Basbug as telling senior media executives. U.S. Pentagon sources told Reuters they were unaware of such an order and were checking the report. But spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable said: "The PKK is a terrorist organisation. We remain committed to stopping terrorism, both within Iraq and from Iraq. Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said he had only heard of the development through the media. "Such a decision is pleasing," he told reporters at a ministerial meeting of countries neighbouring Iraq in Istanbul.
