DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Nov 19 (AFP) - Two Kurdish rebels were killed in a clash with government troops and one woman died and seven others were hurt in a landmine explosion in southeastern Turkey, security forces said Friday.
The rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), now known as KONGRA-GEL, were shot dead during an operation launched in rural Batman province, provincial governor Haluk Imga told the Anatolia news agency.
Imga said one of the dead rebels was of foreign nationality, but did not elaborate.
Security forces found the rebels, who were killed in their hideout, armed with three AK-47 assault rifles, several rounds of ammunition and explosives, he said.
In the nearby province of Sirnak, bordering Iraq, a minibus carrying relatives of soldiers serving in the region hit a fragmentation mine believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels, a security source told AFP.
The blast near the town of Beytussebap left one woman dead and seven others injured, the source added.
Security forces were sweeping the area for the rebels, he said.
The PKK, which waged a war for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey between 1984 and 1999 called off a five-year unilateral truce with Ankara on June 1.
Since then, the group has been blamed for a series of deadly attacks on security forces and the bombings in August of two hotels in Istanbul, in which two people were killed.
11/19/2004 16:46 GMT - AFP