Kurds kill three in Ocalan protest

KURDISH REBELS killed three people yesterday in an attack on a coffeehouse in eastern Turkey that security officials said was a protest against the death penalty imposed on the rebels' leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

Security sources said two Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas opened fire with automatic weapons, killing three men in the coffeehouse in Elazig and injuring three others. One of the attackers was killed by security forces in a subsequent gun fight. The other was being pursued.

The attack was the first since a court on Tuesday sentenced Ocalan to hang for spearheading the PKK's armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule, which has claimed more than 29,000 lives over the past 15 years.

The verdict brought threats from the PKK guerrillas to spread fighting throughout Turkey with attacks on strategic targets.

It was not immediately clear why the guerrillas attacked the cafe, but security sources said the raid appeared to have been designed to draw attention to the PKK's capacity to strike in inner-city areas.

"In order to make its voice heard, the PKK is trying to stage this kind of attack," said one security source who asked not to be named. (Reuters)