Egypt ? Turkish leaders this week will give visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki what Turkish military commanders and analysts said could be a final warning to act against anti-Turkey Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq – or to stand by while Turkish forces go after the rebels themselves, risking a new front in Iraq’s war.

Leaders of Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party appear to be in agreement with Turkey’s generals that the time has come to move against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known by its Kurdish initials, PKK, in its bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, said former generals and a military expert close to the Turkish military’s general staff.

At least 30,000 people have been killed since the Kurdish rebels launched a campaign in 1984 for an independent Kurdish homeland in eastern Turkey.

Clashes and bombs this week killed 14 Turkish soldiers and rebel fighters. The rebels also kidnapped eight residents of a Kurdish village in the east.