DIYARBAKIR, July 27: Turkish security forces have killed 15 guerillas from the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and seized a number of arms and documents, security officials said on Wednesday. Earlier reports gave the number killed as seven.

Security forces clashed with the rebels in a remote part of mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, north of the Iraqi border, during a military operation. The officials said the operation, with troops backed up by helicopters, was continuing.

The clash was the latest in a rash of violent incidents in southeast Turkey and in two western coastal resorts blamed on the PKK and groups linked to it. Earlier this week, two soldiers and a guerilla were killed in a gun battle in the southeast.

The PKK has waged an armed campaign for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey since 1984, and more than 30,000 people have died in the fighting. Despite a lull in violence after the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, fighting has increased sharply since the organization — branded as ‘terrorist’ by the United States and the European Union as well as by Turkey — called off a unilateral ceasefire last summer. Turkey has vowed never to negotiate with the PKK.—Reuters