Three Turkish soldiers killed in ambush by Kurdish rebels

DIYARBAKIR - Three Turkish soldiers were killed and four others injured Friday in an ambush by Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey, local security officials said.
The incident ocurred near the town of Kigi in the mountainous province of Bingol, prompting the army to launch an operation to hunt down the assailants, members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The group waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in the predominantly Kurdish southeast from 1984 to 1999, when it declared a unilateral ceasefire and most of its militants retreated to the mountains of neighboring northern Iraq, then outside Baghdad's authority.
Tensions in the region have escalated anew since last June when the rebels called off the truce, on the grounds that reforms undertaken by the government to expand Kurdish freedoms were insufficient.
The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives.
The Turkish army said earlier this week that an increasing number of PKK militants were sneaking back to Turkey from Iraq to engage in anti-government violence, bringing along "large amounts" of explosives.

05/13/2005 13:15 GMT