Kurdish Rebels Confirm Turkey Pullout to Begin Wednesday

Kurdish rebel leaders have confirmed that their fighters will begin withdrawing from Turkey into bases in neighboring Iraq on Wednesday, the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported.

"Our guerrilla forces will take action for starting the pullout process as of May 8, 2013," the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) command said in a statement carried by Firat on Tuesday.

The first batch of rebels will return to their bases in northern Iraq in a week's time, according to the PKK.

"This process will continue in a planned and organised way."

There are an estimated 2,000 armed PKK militants inside Turkey and up to 5,000 in northern Iraq, which has been used by Kurdish rebels as a springboard for attacks targeting Turkish security forces in the southeast.

Kurdish rebels had announced on April 25 that they would begin withdrawing on May 8 as part of a new peace drive between Ankara and jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.

It followed a landmark ceasefire call in March by Ocalan, who has been involved in months of clandestine peace negotiations with Turkish security services.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the "laying down of weapons" should be the main objective of the rebel retreat.

Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government has faced harsh criticism from opposition parties over the negotiations, accusing Ankara of a lack of transparency.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, launched an armed rebellion for self-rule in the Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984 which has now cost around 45,000 lives.

The rebel command also called on independent rights groups to "take part in the process" by observing the pullouts, saying this could contribute to a safe operation.