DIYARBAKIR: Separatist Kurdish rebels opened fire on a military unit in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, killing two soldiers and wounding two others, Anatolia news agency reported.
The troops came under attack while on patrol in a mountainous region near the town of Semdinli, the report said.
The army launched an operation to hunt down the insurgents, members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has led a bloody 25-year insurgency against Ankara in the mainly Kurdish southeast, it said.
Winter lulls in the conflict are usually broken with the arrival of spring when the snow melts, allowing the rebels to move out from their mountainous hideouts in Turkey and neighboring Iraq.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.
