12 dead in Kurdish attack

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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AFP): Kurdish separatists fired shots at a bus in southeastern Turkey, killing 12 people and wounding two others, local officials said Sunday.
The incident happened Saturday near the town of Beytussebab in Sirnak province not far from the Iraqi border, a statement issued by Sirnak officials said. The bus carried a total of 14 people.
Seven Village Guard militiamen were among the dead.
Village guards are Kurdish paramilitary units armed by the central government in Ankara to protect villages in the southeast of the country from attacks by rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The statement said the army had launched a manhunt to capture the gunmen.
The attack was the deadliest by the PKK in the predominantly Kurdish-populated southeast in the last couple of years. The group is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Ankara believes that thousands of PKK rebels, backed by Iraqi Kurds who are allies of the United States in their war-torn country, are using northern Iraq as a base for attacks in southeastern Turkey.
The number of such attacks has increased since the start of the year.
The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish areas since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.