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Two policemen killed, four injured in fresh Turkey violence

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, July 11, 2006 (AFP) - Two Turkish policemen have been killed in an armed attack and four other people injured in a landmine explosion in Turkey's restive mainly Kurdish southeast, officials said Tuesday.

The two officers, both aged 31, came under crossfire while they were walking in the street in the town of Idil, Sirnak province, late Monday, the local governor said in a statement.

The statement did not say who might be behind the attack.

Sirnak, which borders Iraq and Syria, is a hotbed of rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) whose long-running battle against the government has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984.

In another incident in the same region, four security guards from a private firm contracted by the state-run oil company TPAO were injured when a remote-control landmine, believed to have been activated by PKK militants, exploded while their car was passing, local officials said.

The explosion occurred on a road near a village at the Iraqi border, where TPAO was conducting exploratory drilling work.

Violence in the southeast has been on the rise since 2004 when the PKK, blacklisted as terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire.