The US officials in Iraq are recruiting former PKK members to join the US army for military operations in Afghanistan, a report reveals.Turkey's broadcaster Kanal D reported Tuesday that the US office in the northern Iraqi province of Arbil is employing the ex-members of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who have fled PKK camps in northern Iraq to help US-led troops who are facing strong Taliban and al-Qaeda resistance in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
The report says the ex-PKK militants are granted new identities and join the US army as career soldiers adding that they are being briefly trained in the capital Baghdad before being sent to Afghanistan.
A PKK member also confirmed the report, saying he has witnessed the recruitment of at least 15 of his friends.
According to the report, Washington, which considers PKK a terrorist group, has promised green cards to PKK members in return for their service.
In January 2009, the New York Times reported that the United States would grant citizenship to those who are living in the country with temporary visas should they enter military service for as little as six months to help the already exhausted army worn out by two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The recent recruitment of the former PKK member, however, runs contrary to the citizenship plan according to which, only those who had legally entered the United States were eligible.
The PKK - listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community - took up arms against the Turkish government in 1984 for an ethnic autonomous homeland in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast.
Ankara says about 2,000 PKK insurgents are hiding in Iraq's mountainous north, from where they launch attacks on Turkish territory.
In November, Iraq, Turkey and the US agreed to form a joint committee to stem the threat posed by the PKK and enact measures to stop the militants' activities.
The over-two-decade conflict for self-rule has so far claimed the lives of 40,000 people.
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