|
ISTANBUL, June 24 (AFP) - 0h10 - Troops sweeping
rebel Kurdish regions in the mountainous southeast
of Turkey killed a further three insurgents Friday
after they refused a call to surrender and opened
fire, the Anatolia news agency quoted the governor
of Sirnak province as saying.
The casualties brought the number of rebels reported
killed during the day to eight.
The agency said troops found machineguns, grenades,
explosives and documents in the region where the
Sirnak province clash occurred.
Earlier Friday, officials said other fighting in the
mainly Kurdish southeast left five Kurdish rebels
dead and a Turkish soldier wounded.
The five militants from the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in fighting in a
mountainous area near Karliova town in the province
of Bingol early Friday, security sources said.
They had fled to the area following a clash in the
neighboring province of Tunceli on Thursday, in
which a soldier was wounded, they said.
Also in Tunceli, a taxi driver was seriously injured
when his vehicle ran over a mine planted on a rural
road by PKK rebels, the Anatolia news agency said.
Violence in the region has sharply increased over
the past few months, after the PKK called off a
five-year unilateral ceasefire in June 2004 on
grounds that reforms undertaken by Ankara to expand
Kurdish freedoms were insufficient.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed about
37,000 lives, most of them between 1984 and 1999,
when the PKK waged a campaign for Kurdish self-rule
in the region.
AFP
Top |
® 