DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) kidnapped eight villagers in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey on Friday near the border with Iran, the provincial governor of Van said.

About 25 PKK members seized the villagers and took them away in the direction of the Iranian border, the governor said.

The kidnapping coincided with a major military buildup in southeast Turkey, where 13 people have died in armed clashes in the past few days.

The provincial governor said an investigation had been launched into the kidnappings.

Ankara blames the PKK for about 30,000 deaths since 1984, when the group took up arms to fight for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.

Turkey, the European Union and the United States consider the separatist group a terrorist organisation.

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