Kurdish rebels kill two Turkish soldiers -sources

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, June 14 (Reuters) An army mayor and a soldier were killed by suspected Kurdish guerrillas in attacks over the past 24 hours in restive southeastern Turkey, security officials said today.

The attacks are likely to add pressure on the government to crack down on separatist violence following calls by the armed forces for an offensive into neighbouring northern Iraq where many Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels are based.

One private was killed in the eastern province Elazig when soldiers and PKK rebels clashed early today, security sources said.

Late yesterday an army mayor was killed and two soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack in the Hakkari province in the southeast of Turkey, sources said.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack on the army mayor.

The Turkish military has poured tens of thousands of troops into the southeast as part of a large offensive against PKK rebels. Thousands of troops have been stationed near the border with Iraq to prevent PKK rebels based in Kurdish northern Iraq from entering Turkey.

Erdogan, facing general elections next month, has so far resisted pressure to authorise a cross-border operation to crush thousands of PKK rebels based in Iraq.

The United States, Turkey's NATO ally, opposes any major operation in relatively stable northern Iraq. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has called for restraint.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the start of its campaign in 1984 to seek an independent Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey.

REUTERS SG DS1337