At least two Turkish soldiers killed in remote-controlled mine explosion

At least two soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southeast Turkey when a mine exploded in an attack which security sources blamed on militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The mine was detonated by remote-control as a military convoy passed in the Arakoy region of Sirnak province bordering Iraq and Syria, the sources told AFP.

Local media is reporting that a third soldier was killed in the attack, but this has not been independently confirmed. The PKK has not claimed reponsibility for the attack which also wounded two soldiers.

The explosion triggered clashes between Turkish soldiers and PKK rebels, they said, confirming a report by the official Anatolia news agency.

In the past two weeks, the PKK has stepped up attacks against the security forces as Turkish warplanes bomb its positions in northern Iraq.

The spiral of violence sparked by the killing of 32 pro-Kurdish activists last month in a town on the Syrian border by suspected Islamic State militants has left a 2013 ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK in tatters.

According to an AFP toll, 19 members of the Turkish security forces have been killed in attacks blamed on the PKK since the current crisis began.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the US, took up arms for self-rule in 1984 in an armed struggle which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.