Turkish Troops Kill 21 Kurdish Rebels

Turkish troops killed 21 Kurdish rebels in clashes during the last six days, local security sources said Wednesday.

The clashes were in the area of the Gorese Mountain in the southeast province of Diyarbakir, they said, adding that the military offensive against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels was over.

The ground and air strikes targeted a group of between 50 and 70 PKK members in the area, local media reports said.

The Turkish military launched an operation in northern Iraq in October after a PKK attack killed 24 soldiers in the town of Cukurca near the Iraqi border, the army's biggest loss since 1993.

PKK rebels usually launch attacks on Turkish targets from their rear bases in northern Iraq.

The army then killed 36 Kurdish rebels in Kazan Valley of Hakkari province, near the Iraqi border.

Some media reports in Turkey and abroad, together with the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) have accused Turkey of using chemical weapons against the rebels, but the army denied the allegations.

The PKK, which took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives, is labeled a terrorist outfit by Ankara and much of the international community.