Three Turkish soldiers shot dead in ´terrorist´ attack

ISTANBUL: Masked gunmen on Saturday shot dead three Turkish soldiers in the restive Kurdish-majority southeast of the country, the army said, blaming separatist "terrorists" for an attack that threatens to undermine a fragile peace process.

The three soldiers were shot dead while off duty and walking on the street in the town of Yuksekova in Hakkari province of Turkey´s extreme southeast bordering Iraq and Iran.

The attackers escaped but a security operation was underway to apprehend them, the official Anatolia agency said.

Reports said that the victims had been shot in the head, from behind, while walking in the centre of the town to collect electrical equipment from a police station.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. But in a statement the army blamed "three terrorists from the separatist terrorist organisation", in a clear reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which the military never mentions by name.

Some 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the three-decade-long insurgency waged by the outlawed PKK for Kurdish self-rule and greater rights in Turkey´s southeast.

The PKK has largely observed a ceasefire since March 2013 as the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) seeks to thrash out a historic peace agreement with the rebels.

But there has been an upsurge in tensions in recent weeks over the government´s cautious policy on helping the mainly Kurdish Syrian border town of Kobane, which has been besieged by jihadists of the Islamic State.