Four people kidnapped by Kurdish rebels in eastern Turkey: military

The General Staff of Turkey's armed forces said on Tuesday that militants of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) had kidnapped four people in Ogulveren village in the eastern province of Van.

A military operation was underway in the region to rescue the abducted people, the General Staff said in a statement.

Meanwhile, three PKK members surrendered to Turkish security forces in the southeastern province of Sirnak, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

The PKK recently announced a unilateral ceasefire with Ankara as of October 1 after the group's imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is currently serving a life sentence on Turkey's Imrali Island, called on his militants to observe a ceasefire.

The PKK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has notably stepped up its attacks this year after it called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire in June 2004.

More than 30,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984.

Source: Xinhua