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Turkish army says 18 Kurdish militants killed in southeast


    DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish security forces killed 18 Kurdish militants in southeast Turkey, the military said on Saturday, and security sources said a further five people, four of them soldiers, had been wounded in gun and bomb attacks in the region's main city.

    Violence has blighted the mainly Kurdish southeast since a two-year ceasefire between the state and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants collapsed last July, reviving a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people over three decades.

    The armed forces said 16 PKK fighters had been killed on Friday in the town of Cizre, near the Syrian border. Another two rebels were killed in the historical Sur district of the region's largest city, Diyarbakir.

    (Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Gareth Jones)