Four Turkish security personnel killed in anti-PKK operation

Four Turkish security personnel were killed early on Saturday in an operation against the Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] in Agri province, eastern Turkey.

Turkey considers the PKK, which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984, to be a terrorist organisation.

Those killed were two members of the military and two security guards, the province's governorship told Anadolu agency.

The province's governnore, Suleyman Elban, said that in the same operation in the province's Dogubeyazit district, left another eight guards were wounded.

Saturday's casualties follow the death of one Turkish soldier in Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday in an attack by PKK militants.

Turkey has long opposed Kurdish independence and recently stood alongside Iran and Iraq in not recognising the recent referendum on independence held by the Kurdish autonomous leadership in Erbil, Iraq.

Turkey, like Iran and Iraq, has a sizeable Kurdish population and warned priopr to the ballot that the vote's outcome could result in a global conflict.

Ankara has since threatened to cut off vital oil pipelines transporting the Iraqi-Kurdish region's treasured resource to Turkey in response to the vote going ahead.

Following the announcement that the 'yes' to independence camp had won by an overwhelming majority of over 90 percent, Ankara has vowed to only deal with Iraq's central government in Baghdad over oil exports.