3 killed in PKK attacks in SE Turkey

Three people were killed when members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) attacked on a gendarmerie post and a security department in southeastern Turkey, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Monday. Hakkari Governor Muammer Turker was quoted as saying that a group of PKK members staged the attacks on the two targets in Semdinli town of the province of Hakkari late Sunday night. "Three people were killed in the attacks. The victims could not be identified yet. Ten people, including seven gendarmerie personnel, were injured," he said. The governor added that a large-scale security operation was under way in the region to capture the PKK militants. The PKK, which recently stepped up its attacks in the country's east and southeast, has killed more than 40 soldiers in the past few months. Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. More than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK during the past over two decades.