A Kurdish militant was killed Friday in clashes with police in southeastern Turkey's biggest city of Diyarbakir, security sources said. Fighting erupted in the Bagcilar district of Diyarbakir after militants opened fire on a police vehicle, they said. Three police were wounded, and operations continued. Hundreds of people have been killed since a conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) reignited in July, wrecking a two-year ceasefire and a peace process. Parts of Diyarbakir and other cities have been transformed into battlegrounds, with authorities declaring week-long or longer round-the-clock curfews for residents. In the past, the PKK and military mainly clashed in rural areas. Earlier this week, gunfire badly damaged a 16th-century minaret that is included in an area inscribed by UNESCO on its World Heritage List in July, witnesses said. The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 in a bid to carve out a homeland in the largely Kurdish southeast. More than 40,000 people have died. The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, has since scaled back its demands to greater political and cultural freedoms.
