ANKARA,— Three Turkish troops were killed on Thursday when Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants opened fire on their convoy in Turkish Kurdistan the southeastern province of Sirnak, the army said.

“As a result of an attack by the Separatist Terror Organisation three of our brave personnel — one officer, one non-commissioned officer and one private — were killed,” said the army, using its customary phrase for the PKK which it never refers to by name.

The army said that the military convoy was ambushed by PKK members as it was travelling along a road while carrying out a security operation in the Akcay district of Sirnak province, which borders both Syrian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan.

“Drones, helicopter gunships and commando units have been despatched to the scene,” it said, adding that one “terrorist” had been killed in the clashes and operations were continuing.

In apparent response, there has been a new wave of attacks on security forces in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurdish southeastern Turkey blamed on the PKK with at least 11 police and army members killed since last week.

The killings are the latest in a spike in unrest as Turkey carries out a bombing campaign against targets of the Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria and PKK militants in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.

The PKK has largely observed a ceasefire since 2013 but over the last week deadly attacks on the security forces blamed on the militants have occurred almost daily.

Since it was established in 1984 the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state in Turkish Kurdistan region in the southeast of the country.

But now limited its demands to establish an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds, who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 75-million population but have long been denied basic political and cultural rights, its goal to political autonomy. A large Turkey’s Kurdish community openly sympathise with PKK rebels.

The parties appeared to be inching towards a peace deal after a 2013 ceasefire, but the renewed fighting has left the prospects of a settlement as far off as ever..

Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, AFP | Agencies | Ekurd.net

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