Turkish soldier killed in clashes with PKK rebels

A Turkish soldier was killed in clashes with the rebels of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkish security forces in the southeastern province of Hakkari encountered with a group of PKK militants near the town of Cukurca as they were trying to sneak in from northern Iraq, said the report, adding that a private was killed in the clash, Xinhua reported.

A large-scale security operation is under way in the region to capture the PKK rebels, said the report.

Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 in order to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK in the past two decades.


/Trend/