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Two killed in violence in southeast Turkey

ANKARA, May 30, 2007 (AFP) - Security forces killed a separatist Kurdish rebel in southeastern Turkey while a soldier died in a landmine explosion blamed on the militants, the army and the Anatolia news agency said.

A rebel from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) was shot dead in a clash late Tuesday with soldiers on patrol in Hakkari province, which borders Iran and Iraq, the general staff said in a statement on its Internet website.

A Turkish soldier was killed in a landmine explosion Wednesday during a security sweep in Hakkari, Anatolia reported.

The Turkish army has been conducting large-scale operations against the PKK in the east and southeast of the country since the arrival of spring, as milder weather makes it easier for militants to move around.

Police also stepped up operations against the rebels in urban centres since a suicide bomber, believed to be a PKK member, blew himself up in central Ankara last week, killing six people and wounding 121.

Turkey says thousands of PKK rebels have found a safe haven in neighbouring northern Iraq, where they obtain weapons and explosives for attacks on Turkish targets across the border.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in 1984 for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish east and southeast of the country.