Adnan Demir, managing editor of the Taraf newspaper, was charged following a complaint by the general staff that the paper printed "leaked secret information" about an October 3 attack by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on a military outpost near the Iraqi border, Markar Esayan told AFP.

If found guilty, Demir could be jailed from three to five years, he said.

Seventeen soldiers were killed in the attack in which PKK rebels backed by heavy weapons fire from northern Iraq attempted to strike the outpost in the mountainous Hakkari province.

Taraf wrote at the time that the army had intelligence as early as one month before the attack which said about 80 rebels were moving towards Hakkari from northern Iraq.

It said an army intelligence report five days before the raid warned the militants were armed with anti-aircraft guns.

US intelligence received hours before the attack showed the PKK fighters setting up the artillery in hills dominating the military base.

The army conducted an internal investigation into the incident and reported it found no fault on the part of the security forces.

The attack triggered nationwide outrage and pledges by Turkish leaders to rout the rebels who use bases in northern Iraq to strike targets inside Turkey.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and southeast since 1984. The conflict has claimed some 44,000 lives.

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