ANKARA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish General Staff said on Friday that eight people were kidnapped by members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in eastern Turkey.

    In a statement posted on its website, the general staff said an investigation found out that the PKK militants kidnapped eight people on July 31 in Baskale, a town located in Turkey's eastern province Van.

    The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has increased attacks on Turkish troops in southeastern districts in recent months, which provoked calls for an incursion into northern Iraq to crush the PKK.

    The rebels launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking decades of strife that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.