Four separatist Kurdish rebels and a Turkish soldier were killed Saturday in fighting in southeast Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported, citing local officials. Two women were among the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants killed in the clashes in Hakkari province, near the Iraqi border, the governor's office said in a statement, carried by Anatolia. “The operation is continuing,” it added. The PKK, fighting for autonomy in the Kurdish-majority southeast, said on Aug. 13 it was declaring a truce until September 20, a period that covers the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and a Sept. 12 referendum on constitutional changes. Ankara has dismissed similar PKK truces in the past and continued to fight the rebels. Meanwhile, hundreds of members of a pro-secular party are protesting the arrests of government opponents accused of plotting to bring down the government. The Workers' Party members are also campaigning Saturday for a “no” vote in a Sept. 12 referendum on a package of government-backed constitutional reforms. Critics contend the reforms are aimed increasing the government's sway over courts. Party members from across Turkey will join them on Monday to march to a prison west of Istanbul where the accused are being held. They include the party's leader, Dogu Perincek. Prosecutors say the accused plotted chaos to compel the military to take power from the government. Secularists believe the arrests are a government effort to intimidate them through the court. The Turkish army denied Saturday it had failed to take measures to prevent a deadly Kurdish rebel attack last month despite having obtained intelligence in advance. A general staff statement said images from unmanned surveillance aircraft, leaked to the media earlier this month, showed the rebels after they had launched the attack on a unit at the Iraqi border and not before as alleged. The Taraf daily, which routinely targets the army, had claimed commanders failed to take action despite seeing the approach of the rebels in live images captured by the drones and did not send reinforcement to help the soldiers. An internal army probe established that fog and a dust storm delayed by about three hours the arrival of helicopter gunships sent as reinforcement to the area, it said.
