Turk troops kill eight Kurdish rebels in southeast

TUNCELI, Turkey, June 27 (Reuters) Turkish troops killed eight separatist Kurdish rebels today near the border with Iraq, military sources said.

''Turkish troops confronted a crowded Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) group in the morning in Sirnak province and eight PKK militants were killed in the ensuing clashes which lasted until the evening,'' an official said.

Officials from the Sirnak governor's office said operations against the rebels would continue without break.

A recent escalation in violence in east and southeastern Turkey, where the PKK has been fighting for a homeland since 1984, and a rise in the number of Turkish army casualties have prompted the armed forces to call for an incursion into northern Iraq to crush militants based there.

Reuters CS RN2232