Iraq: Scores killed and wounded as president tells PKK to disarm

Published March 23rd, 2009 - 04:14 GMT

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral in Iraq's northern Diyala province on Monday, killing 13 and wounding 30, police said. According to Reuters, police said the death toll from the blast in the town of Jalawla, 115 km northeast of Baghdad, was only initial and likely to rise.

 

Meanwhile, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani said on Monday the Turkish guerrilla group Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) must lay down its arms or leave Iraqi soil. "Either it lays down its arms or it leaves our territory," Talabani, a Kurd, told a news conference alongside Turkey's visiting President Abdullah Gul.

 

Turkey has accused Iraq in the past of not doing enough to crack down on the PKK, considered a terrorist organistion by Washington and the European Union.