4 Turkish soldiers killed by Kurdish rebels

Four Turkish soldiers were killed and seven others wounded in an overnight raid by Kurdish rebels in the east of the country, local media reported on Saturday.

Authorities said members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) attacked a military outpost near the town of Nazimiye in Tunceli province at midnight and that clashes continued till dawn, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

Commander of the post was among the dead and two of the injured soldiers were in serious condition, said the report.

It said the Turkish military had sent large number of soldiers and helicopters to the region to hunt down the PKK militants.

It was the most deadly attack against government troops over the past several months by the PKK, which took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey and is listed as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government, the United States and the European Union.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts fuelled by the PKK's separatist campaign in Turkey.

Source: Xinhua