ANKARA, April 29 (Xinhua) -- A Turkish security official was killed on Tuesday during clashes with the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    "A senior sergeant died in the clashes between the security forces and a group of PKK rebels in rural area near Genc town in the southeastern province of Bingol on Tuesday," said the report, which quoted provincial governor Irfan Balkanlioglu as saying.

    Two soldiers and three village guards were wounded when rebels opened fire at the security forces, he added.

    Meanwhile, "two PKK rebels were killed in the clashes," said the report.

    The Turkish military has periodically bombed and shelled suspected PKK positions in Turkish border area with Iraq during the past few months. In February, it launched an eight-day ground incursion into Iraq.

    The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.