Chronology: Regional crisis in northern Iraq

(Reuters) - Eight Turkish soldiers, captured last month by Kurdish guerrillas, were released on Sunday.

Turkey wants leaders of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) arrested and seeks the closure of camps in northern Iraq which they use as bases for cross-border attacks in their 23-year-old campaign for a homeland in southeast Turkey.

Here is a short chronology on recent tensions on the Turkey-Iraq border:

Sept 28, 2007 - Turkey signs an anti-terrorism deal with Iraq targeting the PKK but fails to win Baghdad's consent to allow raids across the border.

Sept 29 - Twelve civilians are killed when Kurdish rebels ambushed their minibus in Sirnak province.

Oct 7 - Kurdish rebels kill 13 Turkish soldiers in fighting in Sirnak province. Two other soldiers die the next day in separate PKK landmine explosions.

Oct 17 - Turkey's parliament approves a government request to allow troops to cross into northern Iraq.

Oct 21 - Kurdish rebels kill 12 Turkish soldiers in an ambush, prompting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call talks to consider a military strike. Eight other troops are taken hostage.

-- Washington asks Turkey to hold back from sending troops into northern Iraq.