Turkish soldiers have killed 12 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in one of the deadliest clashes in recent months in the southeastern province of Sirnak, security officials said Monday.
Three members of the Turkish security forces were wounded during the fighting in a rural area near the town of Beytusebap in the province which borders Syria and Iraq, a statement from the emergency rule headquarters in this southeastern city said.
The statement did not say when the clash took place.
Previously heavy fighting in the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast and east has scaled down considerably since September 1999, when the PKK said it was halting its 15-year armed campaign for self-rule and pulling out of Turkish territory.
The truce announcement, launched following peace calls from condemned PKK rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, was brushed aside by the Turkish army as a "ploy".
The conflict has claimed some 36,500 lives, according to official figures -- DIYARBAKIR (AFP)
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