Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    ANKARA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Two rebels of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in eastern Turkey on Friday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    Patrolling security forces clashed with a group of PKK rebels in Catak town of eastern province of Van, killing two of them, said the report.

    A broad-scale operation is underway in the region, the report added.

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

    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.