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ANKARA, July 22 (AFP) - 21h35 - Kurdish rebels
claimed Friday they had downed a Turkish helicopter
in the southeast, while the army said four soldiers
were injured when a chopper went out of control due
to an undetermined "incident".
The rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has
recently stepped up its campaign of violence in the
region, said in a statement that a Sikorsky
helicopter "was hit and downed by the guerrillas"
during clashes in a mountainous area in Hakkari
province.
"The helicopter, which was transporting personnel to
the operation area, was destroyed together with the
soldiers in it," said the statement on the website
of the MHA news agency, which regularly carries PKK
statements.
The Turkish army, meanwhile, said four soldiers were
injured, two of them seriously, when a Sikorsky
helicopter operating in the same area "went out of
control while landing as a result of an incident
that occured in its tail section due to a yet
undetermined cause, and sustained damage."
A probe was under way to determine what caused the
incident, it added.
The PKK has intensified attacks against the army
over the past several months, after it called off a
five-year unilateral ceasefire in June 2004 on the
grounds that reforms by Ankara to expand Kurdish
freedoms were inadequate.
The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives since
1984 when the PKK -- branded a terrorist
organization by Turkey, the United States and the
European Union -- took up arms for Kurdish self-rule
in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.
AFP
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