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ANKARA, Aug 21 (AFP) - 10h24 - Two members of
the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed
by security forces in fighting in Tunceli province
in eastern Turkey, local authorities said Sunday,
quoted by the Anatolia news agency.
The clashes happened in a rural zone near the
village of Bozargakarderbent, officials said, adding
that the operation by security forces was
continuing.
The KONGRA-GEL, considered the PKK's political wing,
on Friday called for a one-month ceasefire until
September 20 in order to faciliate negotiations with
the government in Ankara, while reserving a right
for the rebels to "legitimate defence" if attacked.
The PKK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group
by both the United States and the European Union,
had stepped up violence in recent months after
calling off a unilateral truce declared in June 2004
on the grounds that Ankara's steps to expand Kurdish
freedoms were insufficient.
Turkish media on Saturday blamed the PKK for a bomb
attack a day earlier targetting a passenger train in
the southeastern province of Gaziantep. The device
planted beside the railway track went off as the
train went past, damaging one carriage, but causing
no casualties.
About 37,000 people died between 1984 and 1999 as
the PKK led a violent armed campaign for Kurdish
autonomy in Turkey's southeast.
AFP
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