DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, July 30 (Reuters) - Kurdish rebels
killed two Turkish soldiers in clashes in the country's
southeast and hundreds of villagers have fled the fighting,
adding to Ankara's concerns over gains by Kurdish groups in
neighbouring Syria.
The government of Hakkari province, near Turkey's borders
with Iraq and Iran, said the two soldiers were killed and 10
others wounded during fighting that broke out there on Sunday.
Fighting, including bombardment with helicopters and war
planes, was still underway on the southern fringe of the town of
Semdinli, town mayor Sedat Tore said.
He said six hamlets had been evacuated and up to 1,000
people had fled.
The province is the scene of recurring fighting between
Turkish forces and fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK), which has fought a separatist insurgency in the mainly
Kurdish southeast since 1984 and which is regarded as a
terrorist group by the United States, European Union and Turkey.
Syrian opposition forces say President Bashar al-Assad's
forces last week quit areas further west on the Turkish-Syrian
border, now reportedly controlled by members of a PKK-aligned
Syrian Kurdish group.
The collapse of Syria's state security presence in a region
populated largely by Kurds has stirred Turkish anxieties about
the potential for rekindled separatist sentiment in its borders.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said last week that
Turkey could intervene in Syria in response to any attack or
potential threat deemed to emanate from there.
(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; Writing by Joseph Logan; Editing
by Angus MacSwan)