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DIYARBAKIR, Kurdistan-Turkey, Sept 28 (Reuters)
14:09:59 GMT- Turkish troops killed two Kurdish
rebels on Wednesday after a tip-off that they were
about to launch an attack in a town in the
southeast, a provincial governor said in a
statement.
Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast has seen an
upsurge in violence in recent months despite the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels extending their
ceasefire till Oct. 3, the date Turkey is due to
start talks to enter the European Union.
The statement said police in the provincial capital
Diyarbakir received a tip-off late on Tuesday saying
the PKK were planning to attack one of two townships
in the region.
Security forces set up roadblocks and attempted to
stop a suspect car outside one of the towns. When
the car did not stop, security forces blocked its
path and two men inside opened fire.
Three policemen were wounded, one of them seriously.
The two men were shot dead. Police found two
Kalashnikov assault rifles, ammunition, two
hand-grenades in the car.
Some 30,000 people, most of them Kurds, have been
killed since the PKK began its fight for Kurdish
self-rule in 1984.
Turkey, under pressure from the European union, has
passed laws to improve its human rights record and
give limited language rights to its Kurdish
minority. But human rights organisations complain
Ankara has not done enough to put the new laws in
into practice.
Reuters
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