At least 20 Kurdish separatists and six Turkish soldiers have been killed in clashes that erupted between Turkish troops and PKK rebels. Some 50 PKK members from northern Iraq attacked a gendarme station in the province of Hakkari near the border, killing two soldiers, Turkish military sources said in a statement posted on its website. After the attack, Turkish warplanes bombed rural areas along Turkey's border with Iraq, where 20 militants were killed, the army source confirmed, adding in a second statement that another four soldiers died in ensuing clashes as the army pursued the rebels on the ground.
Earlier in the day, three people were killed and a dozen injured in three landmine explosions in Turkey's southeastern provinces of Siirt and Batman and in eastern Bingol province, said security sources.
The violence comes amid an ongoing military operation, backed by attack helicopters, tanks and artillery against the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas in the restive and mountainous parts of southeast Turkey.