Turkey Says 3,000 Troops Withdrawn

Turkey said Saturday it has pulled more than 3,000 soldiers out of northern Iraq, but denied it was responding to criticism of its three-week-old campaign against Kurdish separatist rebels.

Turkey sent 35,000 troops into the Kurdish area of northern Iraq on March 20. The area is protected by a U.S.-led allied air force and out of Iraq’s reach. Northern Iraq is home to about 3.5 million Iraqi Kurds.

“More than 3,000” troops pulled out Saturday and returned to a base in southeastern Turkey, Col. Dogu Silahcioglu, a military spokesman, told The Associated Press. He wouldn’t give specific numbers or details of their withdrawal.

Turkey’s defense minister, Mehmet Golhan, denied the withdrawal was a concession to the United States and other Western countries that want Turkey to bring an end to its campaign.

“Whatever the West says, we will not pull out before completing the operation,” Golhan said.

Strobe Talbott, a U.S. deputy secretary of state, is scheduled to visit the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday. Prime Minister Tansu Ciller meets with U.S. President Bill Clinton at the White House on April 19.

The rest of the troops will return home in the “shortest time,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Turkish newspapers reported the withdrawal would be done gradually, and some reports suggested it could take more than two months.

Some 2,800 Kurdish rebels use camps in the region to launch hit-and-run attacks on Turkey.