Soldiers killed in bomb attack in eastern Turkey

Three soldiers have been killed in eastern Turkey after a bomb attack on their vehicle, according to local media reports.

Six more troops were injured and hospitalised in a blast triggered from a distance by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters, the Dogan news agency said.

The Turkish army has launched an operation with air support to capture the fighters who carried out the attack, the reports said.

Separately, four Turkish soldiers were killed and six more were wounded in a clash with Kurdish fighters in the southeastern Hakkari province on Friday, security sources told the Reuters news agency.

Last month, Turkey announced the start of an air campaign targeting the PKK in northern Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the north of Syria.

The PKK stepped up its attacks in the country in July after a ceasefire between the two sides effectively ended.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.

Ankara launched a peace process with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 2012 and a ceasefire declared by him in 2013 had largely held until hostilities resumed last month.