Turkish troops kill two Kurdish rebels in clash

TUNCELI, Turkey, Jan 15 (Reuters) Turkish soldiers killed two Kurdish guerrillas in a clash in southeast Turkey as the troops sought out rebels preparing winter hideouts in the region, a military official said today.

The two militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)died in a firefight yesterday in the district of Lice, near Diyarbakir, the largest city in the region.

A day earlier, one PKK fighter was killed and one soldier was wounded in a clash in the neighbouring mountainous province of Bingol.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in fighting between Turkish security forces and the outlawed 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.

REUTERS LL VC1540