Three Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops

Photo: Three Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops

After Kurdish rebels attacked a military outpost and killed a sergeant, Turkish troops hunted down and killed 3 of them, the governor's office said Wednesday.

Rebels attacked the outpost in the southeastern province of Tunceli on Tuesday night and shot and killed a sergeant, the governor's office said.

Turkish troops set out to find the rebels and killed three of them, including a woman, near the village of Canakci of the town of Mazgirt, it said.

The U.S. and Iraq have been pressing Turkey to avoid a major cross-border attack on Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, rebel bases in northern Iraq, which has been one of the most stable areas in Iraq.

But Washington has agreed to share intelligence with Turkey, enabling its military to hunt down the separatist rebels when possible.

PKK rebels have killed more than 40 Turks in hit-and-run attacks over the past month, mainly soldiers, raising the public pressure on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to retaliate.

The rebels have been staging hit-and-run attacks from bases in northern Iraq in a war for autonomy in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast since they first attacked a military unit in 1984. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far.