(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-04 17:10

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Turkish officials Friday the PKK was a "common threat" and that the United States would help Ankara in its fight against them. Iraq promised Saturday at a conference with Rice and Turkey's foreign minister to work with its neighbors and the US to combat the guerrillas.

Bozan Takeen, a senior member of the PKK, denied that PKK fighters use Iraqi territories to launch attacks inside Turkey, calling the allegations "baseless."

And he accused Ankara of trying to pit Kurd against Kurd.

"They want the two Kurdish political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan to attack us, but this will not happen," he said.

Takeen said the PKK isn't intimidated by the threat of an assault by Turkey, a member of NATO. The Turkish military reportedly has amassed 100,000 troops along the Turkey-Iraq border.

"Turkish attacks will strengthen our determination to struggle harder to gain our rights," Takeen said.

One PKK fighter, Madani Kurdistani, 20, said he joined the PKK six years ago when he was just 14. Turkish authorities in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, he said, are pressuring his family, hoping they will persuade him to turn himself in.

He refuses.

"I am fighting for the sake of people," he said, carrying a Kalashnikov assault rife. "Life without freedom is a meaningless one. We have to pay the price of the freedom."

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