One soldier, two Kurdish rebels killed in Turkey clashes

A Turkish soldier and two fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed when militants attacked a military outpost in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, security sources said on Wednesday.

One soldier died of his wounds in hospital while five others were injured, the army said, when militants launched an attack with guns and rockets on the command post in the village of Ozekli.

The incident is the latest in a surge of violence during the recent weeks between Turkish security forces and the PKK. The group carrying out daily attacks in Turkey on the security forces, in an escalating cycle of violence as the military bombs rebel targets inside Turkey and northern Iraq.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to fight against PKK militants, in the face of mounting attacks on security forces blamed on the Kurdish rebels. "Let me put it clearly, the operations will continue," he said in a televised speech in Ankara as Turkey presses on with air strikes on PKK targets in the country's southeast and in northern Iraq. "We will never stop in the face of all these attacks. We will continue to fight with determination," he added.

Erdogan called on the PKK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Ankara and much of the international community, to lay down arms and bury them "under concrete." Until it did so, the Turkish state would continue its offensive, he said.

dr/rc (AFP, Reuters)