One soldier, 7 Kurdish rebels killed in Turkey unrest: army

Turkish police stand near a building where two officers were found shot dead at their home on July 22, 2015 in Ceylanpinar, part of an escalating cycle of violence between the PKK and Turkish security forces.

ISTANBUL  - One Turkish soldier and seven suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in new violence blamed on the Kurdish rebels, the army said Thursday.

The deaths were the latest in an escalating cycle of violence between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels that has left a 2013 ceasefire in tatters.

The soldier was killed when an explosive device laid by PKK rebels near a railway line in the Genc district of the eastern Bingol province was detonated, the army said.

PKK fighters also launched an overnight attack with guns and rockets on a command post in the town of Silopi on the border with Iraq and Syria, prompting clashes that left four militants dead, an army statement said.

The PKK also attacked a military base and police station in Agri province near the Iranian border overnight, with three militants killed in clashes with the security forces, it said.

But the pro-PKK Firat news agency said two of those killed in Agri were teenagers aged 15 and 16 who were working at a bakery when Turkish security forces opened fire on nearby buildings.

Speaking to Firat news, pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) lawmaker Dirayet Tasdemir described the incident as a "clear execution."

Details of the incident could not be independently verified.

Ankara is currently waging a two-pronged "anti-terror" offensive against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria and PKK militants in northern Iraq and the southeast of Turkey following a wave of attacks.

But, so far, the air strikes have overwhelmingly concentrated on the separatist Kurdish rebels, who have responded by waging a bloody campaign against the security forces.

According to an AFP toll, 31 members of the security forces have been killed in violence linked to the PKK since the crisis began last month.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday vowed that Turkey would press on with its relentless campaign against Kurdish militants "until not one terrorist" was left.