Turk troops escape east Turkey suicide attack

TUNCELI, Turkey, June 24 (Reuters) Turkish paramilitary police escaped unscathed from a suicide attack by the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) late yesterday, the provincial governor said today.

Army sources had said PKK militants attacked a paramilitary police station in the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli using a truck filled with oil, and clashes had followed.

But today Tunceli Governor Mustafa Yaman said the gendarme police, who work alongside the army and are responsible for security in rural areas, had anticipated the attack and fled to avoid being hurt, and no one was killed.

Officials had said two guerrillas had killed themselves in the attack -- in which a stolen truck was blown up -- but the governor said later today that only one of the dead was a member of the PKK and the other was the hijacked truck's driver.

In a separate clash today in the southeastern province of Hakkari, three PKK members were killed. Security officials said the militants had been responsible for a remote-controlled mine attack earlier this month which killed a Turkish officer.

A recent escalation in violence in east and southeastern Turkey, where the PKK has been fighting for a homeland since 1984, has prompted the armed forces to call for an operation into northern Iraq to deal with militants based there.

The government, which faces elections next month, has said it agrees with the army and an operation could be launched if necessary, but has not reconvened parliament to approve such a move.

REUTERS JT RN2332