WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Kurdish officials have imposed a security blockade around Qandil Mountain in northern Iraq to control Kurdish rebel activity in the region, officials said.
Qubad Talabani, the Kurdistan Regional Government's representative to the United States and son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, told a panel at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that the KRG had taken up new security measures to control the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
"To implement measures, we have created a security belt around the Qandil Mountain," he said.
Relations between the Kurdish government in Iraq and Ankara soured over PKK activity, as Turkish officials blamed the KRG for providing a safe haven for the militants.
Talabani told the audience, however, that "relations were in a dire situation" between the two governments in 2008, but showed signs of improvement through a series of dialogues, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported Wednesday.
The PKK is a militant separatist movement operating in northern Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. It is considered a terrorist organization by several nations, including the United States.
U.S. military officials in Iraq have shared intelligence with the Turkish military on PKK activity in Iraq since December 2007.
An offshoot, the Free Life Party of Kurdistan, or PJAK, last week was listed by the U.S. Department of Treasury as a terrorist organization.
