Six soldiers killed in SE Turkey landmine blast

TUNCELI, Turkey, May 24 (Reuters) Six Turkish troops were killed when a mine exploded in southeast Turkey today, security sources said, amid speculation the army may cross into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish guerrillas based there.

The United States and Iraqi Kurdish leaders oppose Turkish troops going into northern Iraq and a Kurdish Iraqi official recently warned that talk of such a move was a ''dangerous escalation.'' The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has also urged it to exercise restraint for the sake of a stable Iraq and Turkey's EU entry process.

Today's attack, which security sources blamed on the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was the deadliest single attack on Turkish forces in the last year.

Another 10 soldiers were wounded in the blast as their vehicle drove over the landmine, planted in Sirnak province, near the Iraqi border, the sources told Reuters.

It followed the worst bomb attack in the capital Ankara in at least a decade on Tuesday, which authorities said appeared to be the work of the PKK. The group denied responsibility for that attack, believed to have been a suicide bombing.

The PKK has been fighting for an ethnic homeland since 1984 and Ankara blames it for more than 30,000 deaths since then.

Thousands of PKK rebels are based in northern Iraq from where they launch attacks in Turkey.

The head of Turkey's armed forces, General Yasar Buyukanit, has called for a military operation there and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying late yesterday that he agreed with the army.

Tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers are based in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast to fight the rebels, who tend to step up attacks in the spring when the weather improves.

On Sunday two forest workers were kidnapped by PKK militants for cutting down trees in the woods, defying an order from the militants who use the region's rugged terrain to hide from security forces.

REUTERS AK RK1838