A Turkish soldier and a village guard were killed on Saturday in separate clashes with Kurdish rebels in Turkey’s restive southeast, local media reported.

The soldier died when fighting erupted in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province between security forces and militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), security sources told the official Anadolu news agency.

Another soldier was injured while one PKK militant was killed, Dogan news agency reported, adding that operations continued in 18 villages in the province where long curfews were imposed on Friday.

A village guard was killed in the foothills of Cudi Mountain in Sirnak province after rebels opened fire on security forces, Dogan said.

He was part of a group of locals cooperating with Turkish security forces to fight  the PKK, listed as a terror group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union.

Turkish war planes destroyed PKK shelters and areas where arms were stored on Friday in the Buzul mountains in Hakkari province on the border with northern Iraq, the chief of staff said in a statement, quoted by Anadolu.

Since the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in 2015, there have been almost daily attacks with no let-up since the July 15 attempted coup tried to remove President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power.

Anadolu says more than 600 security personnel and over 7,000 PKK militants have been killed during the military operations launched in response to renewed fighting.

Activists claim innocent civilians have also died in the offensives.

Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984.

Source: AFP