Three Turkish soldiers and four Kurdish rebels were killed Wednesday in fighting in the country`s east and southeast, security officials and media reports said.

Fighting between security forces and rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK) near the town of Lice, in Diyarbakir province, saw another four troops also wounded in the clash, local security sources said.

Iraq on Wednesday repatriated the remains of 150 Kurds killed in the 1980s during Saddam Hussein`s rule and buried in a mass grave outside the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

In a solemn ceremony at Najaf`s newly opened airport, Human Rights Minister Wejdan Mikhail and Najaf`s governor, Assad Abu Gulal, paid their respects to the victims of Saddam`s brutal campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s.

A Turkish soldier was killed and five others were wounded Wednesday in clashes with Kurdish rebels in the mountainous east of the country, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Iraq, Turkey and the United States agreed Wednesday to form a joint committee to combat the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK), a guerilla movement based along the mountainous Iraq-Turkey border.

Iraq, Turkey and the United States agreed Wednesday to form a joint committee to combat the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK), a guerilla movement based along the mountainous Iraq-Turkey border.

An Iranian Kurdish journalist has been arrested on undisclosed charges in the city of Sanandaj in western Iran, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Bahman Tutunchi was arrested Tuesday morning at his home in Sanandaj in Kordestan province, the reformist Kargozaran paper said, quoting a family member.

An Iranian Kurdish journalist has been arrested on undisclosed charges in the city of Sanandaj in western Iran, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Bahman Tutunchi was arrested Tuesday morning at his home in Sanandaj in Kordestan province, the reformist Kargozaran paper said, quoting a family member.

ANKARA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Police arrested 10 people in eastern Turkey on Saturday as they broke up with warning shots and tear gas a rally by a Kurdish party that authorities are trying to ban, media reports said.

Police moved in on the 2,000-strong group in the city of Van when some demonstrators chanted slogans in favour of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist rebels, the NTV news channel reported.

ARBIL, Iraq, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - In Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region the official line is clear: there is no question of declaring independence. But in the regional capital Arbil, Baghdad seems more distant each passing day.

Bank notes, except where replaced by the US dollar, are the last refuge of the Iraqi flag.

Everywhere else in this region of four million people, spared the violence which has ravaged the rest of Iraq, it is the Kurdish tricolour -- green, white and red -- which flies. Not a single road sign is in Arabic.

ANKARA, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - The Turkish army confirmed Monday that eight soldiers were missing after bloody clashes Sunday with Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border.

'Despite all searches, contact has not been established with eight staff with whom contact was lost,' the general staff said in a statement.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said it had captured eight soldiers after an ambush Sunday on a military unit which left 12 solders dead.

The separatist group named the soldiers Monday on the web site of a news agency considered to be its mouthpiece.