Three teachers kidnapped by PKK in southeastern Turkey

Three teachers were kidnapped by members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey, private Dogan news agency reported on Saturday. A group of PKK rebels blocked a service minibus carrying 11 teachers near Calpinar village in Midyat town of Mardin province Friday evening, said the report, adding that the PKK members let go eight teachers and kidnapped the other three. Turkish security forces launched an operation in the region to capture the PKK rebels who kidnapped the teachers, said the report. Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts fuelled by PKK's separatist campaign in Turkey.