Kurd rebels kill 7 Turkish soldiers, guard-agency

ANKARA, July 16 (Reuters) Militant Kurdish separatists killed seven Turkish soldiers and a village guard when they attacked security forces near the town of Eruh in southeast Turkey today, the semi-official Anatolian news agency said.

It said the attackers were members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) but gave no other details.

In a separate incident security forces said they had killed three PKK members in a clash on the lower slopes of Mount Cudi in Siirt province, also in the southeast, on Friday.

Armed clashes have intensified since April, when the Turkish military sent an extra 40,000 troops to the border with Iraq, from where they believe PKK guerrillas cross into Turkey.

Private NTV television reported yesterday that leading PKK member Murat Karayilan had been wounded in the leg in late June in an Iranian artillery attack on the PKK's main base in Mount Kandil in north Iraq, but the report has not been confirmed.

Over 30,000 people have died in fighting between Turkish security forces and the PKK since 1984, when Kurdish rebels began their armed campaign to carve out an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union, Turkey and the United States.

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