All news

Thirteen Kurdish rebels killed in Turkey clashes

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, April 10, 2008 (AFP) - Thirteen Kurdish rebels were killed Thursday in clashes with the army in eastern Turkey, according to the military.

Eleven rebels were killed in the mountains between Pulumur and Nizamiye in the province of Tunceli, where a security operation against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been under way for the past two days, local security sources said.

Turkey's army general staff confirmed the clashes in a statement on its website and added that two other rebels were killed in a rural area of Diyarbakir province in the southeast.

Turkey stepped up action against the PKK from December and conducted several air strikes and a week-long ground incursion into northern Iraq, where it says more than 2,000 PKK rebels take refuge.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has been fighting for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.