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Three PKK rebels killed in east Turkey

18 June 2010 00:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Three members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed in an operation staged by the Turkish security forces in east Turkey on Thursday, the semi- official Anatolia news agency reported, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

The Turkish security forces exchanged fire with the PKK militants when trying to capture a group of the rebels in rural area of Kelkit town in Gumushane province bordering Erzican province, Erzican Governor Abdulkadir Demir was quoted as saying.

Demir added that armed clashes between the PKK rebels and the security forces are continuing in the region.

The PKK have intensified attacks on the Turkish security forces of late, killing dozens of Turkish soldiers for the last two months.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey and has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government, the United States and the European Union.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts fuelled by PKK’s separatist campaign in Turkey.