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ANKARA, Aug 31 (AFP) - 17h30 - The death toll
from a three day gunfight between Turkish security
forces and armed Kurdish rebels rose to seven when
soldiers found the body of another militant during a
sweep of the area where the clash took place, a
local official said Wednesday.
Officials had earlier said that six members of the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed
in the shootout that erupted on August 25 in a rural
area in the province of Batman when militants
reponded with fire to calls to surrender.
"With the discovery of the body of one more
terrorist, the toll of the clash has risen to seven
terrorists," Batman governor Haluk Imga told the
Anatolia news agency.
The fighting triggered tension in the main city of
the province, also called Batman, on Sunday, when
police clashed with Kurdish demonstrators trying to
claim the bodies of dead rebels.
A 25-year-old man died in hospital after sustaining
a gunshot wound during the scuffles. Officials have
not said who shot the victim.
Imga said the atmosphere in the city was calm and
that relatives of the dead militants, along with a
group of some 250 people, were waiting for official
clearance to claim the bodies.
Violence has sharply increased in Turkey's mainly
Kurdish southeast since June 2004 when the PKK
called off a five-year unilateral truce on the
grounds that government moves to expand the rights
of the Kurdish population were insufficient.
The PKK's political wing, KONGRA-GEL, announced a
fresh one-month unilateral ceasefire on August 19
but underlined that the rebels would continue to
defend themselves in the face of Turkish military
operations.
The Turkish army has brushed aside the rebels'
truce, vowing to press ahead with the struggle to
crush the PKK, which is considered a terrorist
organisation by Turkey, the United States and the
European Union.
The conflict with the rebels has claimed some 37,000
lives since 1984, the year PKK militants first took
up arms in search of self-rule in southeastern
Turkey.
AFP
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