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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, July 17 (Reuters) - Turkish
soldiers have killed 10 Kurdish guerrillas in a
clash in a remote area of southeast Turkey, local
officials said on Sunday.
The troops pursued militants from the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) in a rural area of Sirnak
province neighbouring Iraq and were involved in a
firefight after they failed to surrender.
The soldiers seized a rocket launcher, rifles, hand
grenades and 25 kg (55 lb) of plastic explosives
during the four-day operation, the Sirnak governor's
office said in a statement.
The clash coincided with a bomb attack in western
Turkey which killed five people and which officials
have reportedly blamed on the PKK.
British Ambassador Peter Westmacott, visiting
casualties from the bombing, told the BBC
authorities believed the PKK had planted the bomb. A
top PKK official has condemned the attack.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in
1984 with the aim of establishing an ethnic homeland
in southeast Turkey. More than 30,000 people have
died in the conflict.
Violence tailed off after the capture of PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, but has escalated again
since the group called off a unilateral ceasefire in
June last year.
Reuters
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