| Syrian security forces detained 400 people in five cities in Syria in an operation against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatist guerrilla group, Turkey's state news agency Anatolian said on Thursday. Turkey has sought the support of its neighbours in the region and the United States in its fight against the outlawed group, which has killed more than 50 Turkish soldiers in the last two months in escalating violence. Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, facing public anger at the government's inability to stem the rising violence ahead of next year's elections, has called on allies to cut off funds for the rebels and extradite suspected militants to Turkey. The PKK is active in Turkey's impoverished southeast as well as Syria and in Iran through an offshoot called the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Syria and Turkey came to the brink of war in 1998 over Syrian support for the PKK, but political and trade ties between Ankara and Damascus have warmed since then. |