Turkish soldier killed, two wounded in clashes with PKK

A Turkish soldier was killed and two others wounded on Monday during clashes with the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey, dealing a further blow to a fragile peace process, private Dogan News Agency reported.

PKK members opened fire at a team of gendarmerie which had increased ground search activities around the Kocali dam construction site in the Adiyaman province, said the report, adding that one sergeant major was killed and two soldiers injured during the clashes as the gendarmerie team fired back at the PKK members.

The PKK has been attacking dam construction sites in the region recently.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey as well as by the United States and the European Union.

The dam construction site, where the gendarmerie team was, was attacked by the PKK on June 5 when they torched construction equipment at the time.

On July 12, one person was killed and two others wounded in an armed conflict by the PKK in the Gole town of Ardahan province. On the same day, another group of PKK members stopped four trucks and set fire to the vehicles in the Pervari town of Siirt province in southeastern Turkey.

The Turkish government had launched an initiative in early 2013 commonly known as the "solution process" in order to end the decades-old conflict with the outlawed PKK, which claimed the lives of over 40,000 people.

However, the government suspended the settlement process to preserve nationalist votes during the June 7 parliamentary election campaign. Endit