KurdistanObserver.com   Turkish Soldier Killed In Northern Kurdistan Jul 30, 2007 Amed, Northern Kurdistan (Reuters) - A Turkish soldier was killed in a clash with separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) freedom fighters in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan Turkey on Sunday, security officials said. Two other soldiers were wounded in the clash in Mardin province and the army responded by launching an operation against the rebels there and sending in extra troops, the officials said. Dozens of soldiers have been killed this year in an escalation of violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast, which has prompted calls from the army for a cross-border incursion into Southern Kurdistan to deal with rebels based there. The AK Party government, reelected last week, has resisted the powerful army's calls, while still refusing to rule out a move into northern Iraq. Senior security sources say Ankara has raised troop levels in the southeast to more than 200,000 as part of a crackdown on the PKK, which has been fighting for an ethnic homeland since 1984.       Copyright © 2002, Kurdistan Observer