Turkey: PKK surrenders on the rise

ANKARA, Turkey, March 7 (UPI) -- The Turkish army says the number of separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, rebels surrendering to the government is on the increase.

Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak, head of the Turkish General Staff Communication Unit, described accounts Friday from PKK separatists who allegedly escaped from the organization indicating the Kurdish is group isn't having much success stopping its members from deserting, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported.

Without reporting any numbers of deserters, the newspaper paraphrased Gurak saying that during an interrogation of a PKK "terrorist," the man said PKK members are banned from reading propaganda leaflets handed out by the Turkish army and are warned that they would be subjected to chemical poisoning if they touched the distributed papers.

Gurak also said that nearly 375 PKK members have been killed or injured by Turkish operations in northern Iraq since October. The U.S. and Iraqi military units are cooperating with their Turkish counterparts to combat the group, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and several other nations, including Turkey.