Turkish PM accuses PKK militants of kidnapping 4 soldiers

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday accused militants of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) of kidnapping four soldiers in southeastern Turkey, private Dogan news agency reported. Erdogan said the abduction aimed to harm the ongoing peace process between the government and the group. "These are actions perpetrated by those who want to hurt the process," said Erdogan, vowing to advance the process regardless of the incident. The Turkish authorities started peace negotiations with the PKK in October 2012, which led to a cease-fire in March, and the PKK fighters started to return in May to their strongholds in northern Iraq. Earlier Sunday, a group of PKK militants set up a checkpoint near Lice town in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir; two sergeants and two lieutenants were forced out of their vehicle and then kidnapped, the report said. The Turkish security forces have launched an operation to rescue the soldiers, the report added. The abduction came two days after two Kurdish protesters were killed by police during their demonstration the southeastern province of Hakkari. On Friday, a group affiliated to the PKK held a demonstration against the demolition of some PKK members' graves in Yuksekova town. The demonstrators soon clashed with police and two of them sustained severe injuries and later died at a hospital. The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and some other countries, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then, over 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group.