KurdistanObserver.com

Three Turkish Soldiers Killed in Kurdish Rebel Clash

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, May 13 (Reuters) - Three Turkish soldiers were killed and four wounded on Friday in a clash with Kurdish militants during an anti-rebel operation involving some 10,000 troops in southeast Turkey, military officials said.

The firefight occurred a day after Europe’s top human rights court ruled that the trial of the militants’ jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was unfair.

Guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) ambushed the soldiers in Bingol province, inflicting the casualties in the first burst of gunfire, the military officials said.

There was no word of any rebel casualties.

The wounded soldiers were taken to a nearby hospital.

Thursday’s verdict by the European Court of Human Rights puts pressure on Turkey to retry Ocalan, convicted in 1999 for orchestrating a separatist revolt in which more than 30,000 people have died.

The PKK launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. The violence dwindled after Ocalan’s capture but the number of clashes has increased since the group called off a unilateral ceasefire last June.