Three Kurdish rebels, one guard killed in SE Turkey

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 15 (Reuters) Three Kurdish separatist guerrillas and a village guard were killed during an armed clash in eastern Turkey today, security sources said.

Village guards are recruited locally by the authorities to fight militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

''One village guard was killed along with three PKK terrorists in a clash in Van province,'' a security official told Reuters.

The official said security forces had also discovered shelters used by the militants in nearby Agri province.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. Clashes between the militants and security forces have increased in recent months.

Today, Turkish police said they were fairly sure the PKK was behind a bomb blast on Tuesday evening in Diyarbakir, largest city of the mainly Kurdish southeast, which killed 10 people, mostly children, and injured 16 others.

The PKK has denied any involvement in that blast.

Also today, a paramilitary policeman was lightly injured when two assailants hurled a hand grenade in a village near the holiday resort of Marmaris in southwest Turkey.

Kurdish militants believed linked to the PKK claimed responsibility for a series of bomb blasts in the Marmaris area last month in which 27 people were injured.

REUTERS AB PC1933