Two Turkish soldiers killed in landmine blast

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, May 15 (Reuters) Two Turkish soldiers were killed today when they stepped on a landmine laid by Kurdish rebels in countryside in southeast Turkey, security sources said.

A lieutenant and a sergeant died in the blast in Diyarbakir province during operations against guerrillas from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Anti-rebel operations have been stepped up amid warmer weather in the mainly Kurdish region as militants cross the border from mountain hideouts in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

Military authorities sent more land and air forces to the region after today's incident.

Several thousand soldiers, supported by F-16 jets, were taking part in operations near the Iraqi border in the mountains of Sirnak province.

Military hardware destined for the operation was being loaded onto trains at the railway station at Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's southeast.

More than 30,000 people have died in the separatist conflict since the PKK took arms in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast of the country.

The fighting tailed off after the capture and jailing of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, but clashes have intensified again in recent years.

Reuters SLD DB1800