21 Killed in Turkish Troops-Kurdish Rebels Clashes

Clashes broke out overnight between Kurdish rebels and Turkish soldiers in the volatile southeastern Turkey, leaving 21 people dead, local security sources told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Sixteen members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in the fighting that erupted after the rebels ambushed a military convoy, killing five Turkish soldiers, said the sources.

The convoy was hit by four simultaneous blasts in Semdinli town of Hakkari province, near Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq.

Fighting is still ongoing in Semdinli, a frequent site of clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels.

The incident comes just days after a car bomb attack that killed nine people, four of them children, and wounded dozens in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, causing nationwide fury and panic.

Turkish officials blamed the PKK for Monday's attack, but the rebels who have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast since 1984 did not claim responsibility for the assault.

The conflict with the PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community, has claimed some 45,000 lives over nearly three decades.