Three rebel fighters from the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in the clashes between Turkish Gendarmerie teams and PKK in northeastern Turkey early Friday, private Dogan news agency reported.
Four PKK rebels staged attacks against a hydroelectric power plant in Kagizman town of Kars province, said the report, adding that the Turkish Gendarmerie teams were dispatched to the power plant after a tip-off.
The Turkish Gendarmerie teams asked the PKK rebels to surrender, but the PKK rebels started to escape, said the report, adding that the Turkish troops opened fire at the rebels, killing three of them and one militant was arrested.
The Turkish Gendarmerie teams seized a lot of guns and hand grenades in the vehicle of the PKK rebels, said the report.
The Turkish authorities started peace negotiations with the PKK in October, 2012, which led to a ceasefire in March, 2013. But PKK fighters started to return to their strongholds in northern Iraq in May last year.
The PKK, which has been listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and other countries, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland for the Kurds in southeastern Turkey. Since then, over 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group.