Two Turkish soldiers killed in rebel mine blast

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, July 18 (Reuters) Two Turkish soldiers were killed and six were injured today when a mine, planted on a road by Kurdish rebels, exploded in southeast Turkey, security officials said.

Turkey has raised troop levels in the restive southeast to more than 200,000, with many near the Iraq border, senior security sources say, as part of a crackdown on guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The blast occurred when a vehicle carrying the soldiers, who were returning from a patrol, drove over the mine in the Cukurca district of Hakkari province near the border with Iraq.

The injured soldiers were flown by helicopter to a military hospital for treatment.

Separately, the security officials said two PKK rebels had surrendered to Turkish forces in the border province of Sirnak.

Thousands of PKK militants are based in the mountains of northern Iraq, from which they launch attacks into southeast Turkey.

Ankara has refused to rule out the possibility of a cross-border operation against the rebels, despite opposition to such a move from Washington and Baghdad.

The PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic Kurdish homeland. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

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