DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - At least four Turkish soldiers were killed when they stepped on a rebel-laid landmine mine on Tuesday while on their way to a remote mountainous region in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country, local officials and the media reported.
The governor's office in Siirt province announced that four soldiers were killed in the explosion on Mount Gabar which sits near the border with the neighbouring province of Sirnak.
The NTV news channel put the toll at six soldiers, but official confirmation was not available.
The mine is believed to have been planted by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in the southeast from 1984 to 1999.
The group declared a unilateral ceasefire in 1999 after its leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured and tried in Turkey, and most of the rebels withdrew into neighbouring northern Iraq.
But they called off the truce last year, saying that reforms undertaken by the government to expand Kurdish freedoms were insufficient.
The Turkish army said last week that an increasing number of PKK militants were sneaking back into Turkey from Iraq to engage in anti-government violence, bringing along large amounts of explosives.
05/17/2005 10:25 GMT