Kurd rebels kidnap two men in SE Turkey - army

TUNCELI, Turkey, May 22 (Reuters) Kurdistan Workers' Party guerillas kidnapped two men in the eastern Turkish province of Bingol on Sunday, the Army General Staff said on its Web site.

The seized men were forest workers cutting trees legally when they were taken. The PKK, which uses eastern Turkey's rugged terrain to hide from security forces, had said last year that anyone cutting down forests would be punished.

Army sources said an operation had been launched in the area to rescue the two men.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party has been fighting for an ethnic homeland in a campaign of bombings, kidnappings and firefights since 1984, and Ankara blames it for more than 30,000 deaths.

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