Torrential rainfall in Turkey caused severe flooding across the country and was blamed for the deaths of at least eight people in the South-East, local authorities said today.

Turkish troops killed 12 Kurdish guerrillas in a clash in a rugged area used by the guerrillas to sneak into the country from bases in northern Iraq, authorities said today.

Turkish police have arrested a man they suspect was behind the attack in which a young Irish woman was killed last summer.

Turkish commandos backed by attack helicopters tracked down and killed six guerrillas who they said were responsible for the recent deaths of five of their colleagues, reports said today.

A bomb set off by suspected Kurdish guerrillas killed three people and injured 18 others today in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated south-east.

A bomb set off by suspected Kurdish guerrillas killed three people and injured 14 others today in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated south-east as militants intensified their fight for autonomy in the region.

Turkish security forces killed 10 Kurdish rebels and confiscated explosives and weapons in south-eastern Turkey, local officials said today.

Turkish troops killed 21 Kurdish rebels overnight in south-eastern Turkey - the biggest clash since the rebels declared a unilateral truce more than five years ago, a governor’s office said today.

Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terrorist group says it has kidnapped two Turkish truck drivers and will kill them in 48 hours if their company does not stop working in Iraq, according to a new videotape broadcast today on Al-Jazeera TV.

A Turkish driver abducted in Iraq earlier this month has been freed after he promised his captors that he would not return to the country, a media report said today.

Four Turkish children were killed and seven others injured today after they accidentally set off an explosive device in south-eastern Turkey, officials said.

Turkish troops have killed four Kurdish rebels in clashes in eastern Turkey, an official statement said today.