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Govt Kurds

clashes kill

21 in Turkey

DIYARBAKIR, (Turkey): Twenty-one people, including an army colonel, were killed in clashes with Kurdish rebels in the southeast, the Regional Governor's Office said on Tuesday.

It said the colonel died in fighting on Monday in Mardin province. Other clashes occurred in Bingol and Hakkari province.

Meanwhile, security was tightened in major cities around the country for the 11th anniversary of the start of the Kurdish guerrilla war for autonomy. On Aug. 15, 1984 a band of rebels began staging raids in southeastern Turkey. Eleven years later the war rages on having claimed more than 16,000 lives.

The rebels belong to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whose ranks have swollen from 300 to close to 10,000 in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq, from where they infiltrate into this country for hit-and-run attacks.

The war with the Kurds has drawn strong criticism from its Western allies over alleged human rights abuses.-AP