Turkish soldiers kill eight Kurdish militants

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, June 23 (Reuters) Turkish security forces killed eight members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) today, security officials said, in the latest of a series of clashes in the mountainous southeast.

The eight were killed in the province of Hakkari, near the border with Iraq, where Ankara says PKK rebels are based.

Dozens of soldiers and PKK militants have been killed in clashes in the mainly Kurdish southeast in recent months, which have coincided with a series of attacks in Istanbul.

The PKK launched an armed campaign for a Kurdish homeland in 1984 and called off a unilateral ceasefire in 2004. Ankara, which like the United States and European Union considers the PKK a terrorist organisation, blames it for more than 30,000 deaths.

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