Six Turkish soldiers were wounded in a landmine blast on Friday, prompting a military crackdown against Kurdish rebels active in the region, a security official said. The soldiers were wounded when their vehicle hit a mine buried in the road in southeastern Elazig province, he said. The military accused fighters from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of planting the device. The official did not give details of the military operation against the rebels. More than 30,000 people, mainly Kurds, had been killed since 1984 when the PKK launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Fighting has increased since last year, when the rebels called off a unilateral five-year ceasefire they declared after the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in 1999. Friday's incident came a week after two Turkish soldiers and a driver were killed by a mine in Diyarbakir province. -- SP 2302 Local Time 2002 GMT
