4 Turkish troops killed in clash with Kurdish rebels

Four Turkish soldiers were killed Wednesday in a clash with Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in the country's southeast, a local security source said. Three soldiers died in an early-morning ambush by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Eruh town in Siirt province, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the Iraqi border. In a separate clash, also in Eruh, one soldier was killed and another wounded in an assault by the Kurdish rebels, the source added. Last week eight Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack on their outpost near the Iraqi border, and some 30 rebels died in a retaliatory operation that followed. Turkish jets also bombed rebel hideouts in mountainous northern Iraq. The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.