ANKARA, June 26 (Xinhua) -- One driver was killed and four Turkish soldiers injured in an attack staged by rebels of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey on Thursday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    The PKK militants launched the attack against four vehicles carrying soldiers of the Turkish security forces in Lice town of Diyarbakir province, killing the driver of a minibus and injuring four Turkish soldiers, according to the report.

    An operation was underway in pursuit of the PKK militants who escaped, the report added.

    The Turkish military has periodically bombed and shelled suspected PKK positions in Turkish-Iraqi border area 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 in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast Turkey. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.