Kurdish rebel killed in clash in SE Turkey-agency

ANKARA, Jan 14 (Reuters) A Kurdish guerrilla was killed in a clash with Turkish security forces in southeast Turkey, the state Anatolian news agency said today.

It said a Turkish soldier was also wounded in the clash in the mountainous province of Bingol. It did not say when the incident took place but added military operations against the Kurdish rebels were continuing in the area.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in fighting between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) since the group launched an armed campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

The PKK called a unilateral ceasefire last October but Turkey has dismissed the move as irrelevant and clashes have continued, though at a lower intensity than before.

The United States and the European Union, like Turkey, class the PKK as a ''terrorist organisation''. Up to 5,000 PKK fighters are believed to be holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq.

Reuters AB RN2030