Kurdish PKK leaders have confirmed that their fighters will begin withdrawing from Turkey into bases in neighboring Iraq on Wednesday, the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported.

“Our guerrilla forces will take action for starting the pullout process as of May 8, 2013,” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) command said in a statement carried by Firat on Tuesday.

The first batch of PKK will return to their bases in northern Iraq in a week’s time, according to the PKK.

“This process will continue in a planned and organized way.”

There are an estimated 2,000 armed PKK militants inside Turkey and up to 5,000 in northern Iraq, which has been used by Kurdish PKK as a springboard for attacks targeting Turkish security forces in the southeast.

Kurdish PKK had announced on April 25 that they would begin withdrawing on May 8 as part of a new peace drive between Ankara and jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.