Kurd rebels to retreat from Turkey after jailed leader’s call

Masked men demonstrate as some thousands of supporters demonstrate waving various PKK flags and images of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, in the poster, in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, Thursday, March 21, 2013. Ocalan called Thursday for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending the fighting for self-rule for Kurds in southeastern Turkey, one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies lasting nearly 30-years and costing tens of thousands of lives. The banner reads: " Freedom."(AP Photo)

A Kurdish rebel commander is quoted as saying that rebel fighters will heed a call for a ceasefire and their retreat from Turkey, as part of efforts to end a nearly 30-year-old conflict.

Imprisoned rebel leader >Abdullah Ocalan , who is engaged in talks with Turkish officials, called on the fighters to cease hostilities in a message Thursday that coincided with a Kurdish spring festival.

Pro-Kurdish Firat news agency quoted rebel commander Murat Karayilan as saying late Thursday that fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, would “put into practice” terms of the peace process. He did not provide a timetable.

Mr. Karayilan has been leading the PKK from bases in northern Iraq since Mr. Ocalan’s capture in 1999. The conflict has killed tens of thousands since 1984.