One soldier, three rebels killed in eastern Turkey

TUNCELI, Turkey, June 19 (Reuters) One soldier and three militants were killed in two separate clashes in eastern Turkey overnight, security officials said today.

They said the soldier was killed in fighting with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas in the province of Gumushane near the Black Sea, outside the rebels' normal area of activity in southeast Turkey.

In a separate gun battle in Erzincan province, three Maoist rebels were killed and five soldiers were wounded when a military team on patrol stopped a truck carrying some 10 militants. Two rebels were captured and the others escaped.

Small leftist militant groups operate in eastern Turkey, sometimes in coordination with the PKK.

The latest violence comes amid speculation that Turkey will launch a military incursion against PKK rebels based in the mountains of northern Iraq.

Turkey is currently carrying out major military operations against the guerrillas in the southeast, where it has stationed some 150,000 soldiers in a major military build-up.

Ankara considers the PKK a terrorist organisation and blames it for the deaths of 30,000 people since 1984, when the PKK began an armed fight for an ethnic homeland in Turkey.

Reuters RKM RN1452