2 Turkish soldiers killed in operation against PKK

At least two soldiers of the Turkish security forces were killed and three others wounded in an operation against the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey on Friday, said a military statement.

A group of PKK militants attacked the Turkish troops during the military operation in Sur town of Diyarbakir province, wounding five Turkish soldiers on the scene, but later two soldiers died in hospital, said the statement issued by the Turkish Armed forces.

The clashes also left three PKK members killed, added the statement.

A total of 30 PKK rebels were killed in the provinces of Sirnak, Diyarbakir and Hakkari in the military operations staged by the Turkish security forces in southeastern Turkey on Thursday, said another military statement on Friday.

A total of 701 PKK militants were "neutralized" in the towns of Cizre and Sur since early December, the statement added.

Since then, more than 250 Turkish soldiers died and thousands of PKK militants were killed in the military operations across Turkey and northern Iraq.

The PKK negotiated a cease-fire with the government in 2013, but the truce fell apart in the wake of a suicide bomb attack in the border town of Suruc in Sanliurfa Province last July which killed 34 pro-Kurdish and left-wing activists.

Turkey's southeast has seen the worst violence in two decades since a two-and-a-half-year cease-fire between the government and the PKK collapsed in July of last year, reviving a conflict that has killed 40,000 people since 1984.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. Endit