DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) -- One Turkish soldier was killed and two others were wounded in an attack on a gendarmerie station in Turkey's Bingol province on Sunday.

Bingol governor's office said the military launched a large-scale operation against the seperatist Kurdish group PKK militants, who escaped after the attack on the station.

Clashes between the Turkish military and the PKK have intensified since the rebels called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire in 2004.

Turkey's southeastern cities have in recent weeks been scene to demonstrations by Kurdish groups in support of the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan and Turkish nationalists have attacked a pro-PKK group travelling to visit Ocalan in his island prison in the Sea of Marmara.