Kurdish militants kill policeman in eastern Turkey

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Kurdish militants attacked a police checkpoint in the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli overnight, killing one police officer and wounding two others, the provincial governor's office said on Sunday.

    Fighters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) attacked the checkpoint with rocket launchers and rifles on the road between Tunceli and Ovacik at around 11:25 pm on Saturday (2025 GMT), the governor's office said in a written statement.

    The wounded were flown by helicopter to neighbouring Elazig province for treatment, while an operation was launched to catch the militants, it said.

Tunceli is a mainly Kurdish province but lies north of where most of the fighting between the PKK and the security forces has taken place in recent years.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have died in the ensuing violence.

A two-year ceasefire collapsed last July and the conflict is at its deadliest since the 1990s. Thousands of militants and hundreds of members of the security forces have been killed, according to government figures. Opposition political parties say between 500 and 1,000 civilians have also been killed.

(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Gareth Jones)