The Turkish Army vehemently denied any links between it and the radical Turkish Hizbullah terrorist organization. Stories began to circulate that after 33 bodies of individuals murdered by Hizbullah were found that the military may have asked Hizbullah to assassinate several Kurdish sympathizers. One government critic charged that the Turkish military had encouraged Hizbullah in the 1980s, as an alternative organization to the Kurd PKK. The Turkish Army said the charges were nonsense.