At least 10 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and two Turkish soldiers have been killed in clashes in eastern Turkey, private Cihan news agency reported.
Turkish security forces launched an assault with fighter jets against suspected PKK members in Uludere district of Sırnak province Monday night and killed 10 members of the terrorist organization. Two Turkish soldiers killed and three others injured during the clashes, Today's Zaman reported.
Turkey has been conducting air raids against PKK camps hidden in Iraq's northern mountains and inside Turkey since August of last year following the breakdown of a cease-fire and an increase in attacks on Turkish troops and civilians by the PKK.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's largely Kurdish Southeast since 1984. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The group is labeled a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, which has supplied Predator drones to Turkey to assist its fightIn an unrelated development, police acting on a tip chased and stopped a vehicle laden with 125 kilograms of explosives near the southeastern city of Mardin, Diyarbakır Governor Mustafa Toprak told state-run Anatolia news agency. Police were searching for the driver, who managed to escape, he said.
The explosives were taken out of the vehicle and detonated, which caused a small tremor.
In a related incident, police killed one terrorist, who had taken four people hostages in the village of Aktepe near Diyarbakır, and wounded another one following a car chase, Toprak said.
The terrorists in both cars were believed to be part of the same plot, authorities said. There has been no response from the PKK.