U.S. Welcomes Kurdish Rebels Ceasefire Call

The United States on Thursday welcomed a call from the jailed rebel leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) urging his fighters to lay down their arms as a "positive step."

"This violence has claimed too many lives and too many futures, and must end," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

The ceasefire announcement by the PKK's founding leader, Abdullah Ocalan, could help end "more than three decades of tragic violence in Turkey," Nuland added.

"We are at a stage where guns should be silenced," Ocalan said in a letter from his isolated island prison cell read out by a pro-Kurdish lawmaker to a huge crowd in the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded cautiously saying Turkey would end military operations against Ocalan's outlawed PKK if militants halt their attacks.

Nuland added that the United States also applauded "the courageous efforts of the government of Turkey and all parties concerned to achieve a peaceful resolution that will advance democracy in Turkey and improve the lives of all of Turkey's citizens.

"The United States will continue to support the people of Turkey in their effort to finally resolve this issue and move toward a brighter future."

The PKK was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States in 1997, citing attacks on Turkish diplomatic missions in European cities as well as the bombings of Turkish tourist sites in the early 1990s.