Fighting in Turkey's Kurdish southeast kills 20 militants, two soldiers

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Fighting in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast has killed 20 militants and two soldiers, security sources said on Monday.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in the mountainous Daglica area of Hakkari province, which borders Iraq, detonated explosives on a road as a military vehicle passed, killing two soldiers and wounding a third, the sources said.

Separately, soldiers killed a total of 20 PKK fighters in two days of operations in the Beytussebap region of neighboring Sirnak province, according to a statement from the governor's office and information provided by security sources.

The autonomy-seeking PKK, deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union, took up arms in 1984, and more than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have died in the conflict since then.

A ceasefire in Turkey's southeast collapsed last year, and thousands of rebels, soldiers and police and civilians have died in the ensuing violence.