ISTANBUL, Aug 2 (AFP) - Turkish police killed three Kurdish rebels during a vast operation in the east of the country, the Anatolia news agency said Monday quoting local officials.
The operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was launched Sunday and was continuing late Monday in the Pulumur region of Tunceli province.
The officials said the three "terrorists" killed -- including a local PKK leader known as Seyit Riza -- were Iranian nationals and were suspected of involvement in the killing of a Turkish citizen, attacks on a police station and a military vehicle as well as acts of extortion in the region.
Anatolia also reported that two policemen were wounded when a mine exploded under a military vehicle in the southeastern province of Sirnak.
Earlier Monday a Kurdish rebel was killed during clashes with security forces in the neighboring province of Bingol and four people were arrested in Diyarbakir, the regional capital of the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey, during investigations into a grenade attack last week against a police station in the town in which a policeman was killed.
The PKK, now also known as KONGRA-GEL, ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with the Ankara government on June 1, raising tensions in the region after a relative calm during the truce period.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed some 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for self-rule.