Kurdish people hold flags and pictures of jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) during a demonstration calling for his release in Beirut.

A Turkish police officer was killed and two wounded when suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants fired a rocket at their armored vehicle in the town of Nusaybin near the southeastern border with Syria, security sources said on Sunday.

Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast has been engulfed in its worst violence since the 1990s after a two-year ceasefire between the state and PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, collapsed last July.

The conflict has complicated international efforts to end the war in neighboring Syria.

Ankara says the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has won U.S. support in the fight against ISIS, has deep ties to the PKK and fears that its territorial gains in northern Syria will stoke Kurdish separatism inside Turkey.

The PKK, considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, launched a separatist armed rebellion against the Turkish state in 1984 in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds.

PKK fighters have sealed off entire districts of some towns and cities in the southeast and declared autonomy, prompting the security forces to step up their operations.

Related articles across the web

• Six killed in PKK attack on military convoy in southeast Turkey: Sources
• Bombing Kills 28 in Ankara, Turkey Retaliates against Kurds
• Turkish PM: Syrian Kurdish militia taking orders from PKK
• Turkey launches new air strikes on PKK in N Iraq
• Turkey won't stop shelling Kurds in Syria, Erdogan says
• The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks claim responsibility for Ankara bombing
• Qatar- Turkey's Erdogan says despite denials Syrian Kurdish PYD behind Ankara attacks
• Turkey Blames Syria Kurds For Ankara Bombing, Strikes PKK Positions In Iraq
• Turkish army says 14 PKK militants killed in southeast Turkey
• Militant group sidelined as Turkey unveils plan to end Kurdish unrest