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Turkish soldier killed, 8 injured in Kurdish rebel ambush

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, June 5, 2006 (AFP) - Separatist Kurdish rebels ambushed a military convoy in southeastern Turkey, killing a soldier and wounding eight others, officials said.

The attack occurred Sunday night on a road linking the cities of Bingol and Elazig, Bingol Governor Vehbi Avuc was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.

The security forces launched an operation to hunt down the assailants, believed to be members of the outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Meanwhile, a shadowy Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for a blast in the southern Mediterranean city of Mersin on Sunday, which left 15 people injured.

"As long as oppression continues in Kurdistan, no region of Turkey will be in peace," a statement on TAK's website said.

The Turkish authorities say TAK is a front for PKK attacks on civilians.

Sunday's blast, which came from an ice cream fridge outside a shop in downtown Mersin, was caused by a grenade remotely detonated via a mobile phone, police officials told Anatolia.

Mersin is home to a large community of Kurdish migrant workers from the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

The Kurdish conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK -- blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States -- took up arms for self-rule in the southeast.