Iran arrests PKK's number two
Press TV - The intelligence and security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have arrested the second top member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turkish media sources say.
Iranian security forces captured Murat Karayilan, the PKK's number-two man and the current leader of the terrorist organization, Fars News Agency cited Turkish media sources as saying on Saturday.
So far, no official Iranian or Turkish source has confirmed the capture.
Karayilan, who had last been seen in northern Iraq, became the commander of the PKK after its former leader and founder Abdullah Ocalan was arrested by Turkish intelligence forces in Kenya in 1999.
The PKK is a separatist organization that launched an armed struggle against the Turkish government in the 1980s for a Kurdish homeland in Turkey's southeast.
Listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and most of the international community, PKK is held responsible by Turkey for the loss of nearly 45,000 lives over the past two decades.
A PKK offshoot, the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), regularly engages in armed clashes with Iranian security forces along the country's western borders with Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
The Kurd militants launch their attacks from Iraq's Qandil Mountains in the areas controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government. Tel Aviv and Israeli firms reportedly operate in these mountains as well.