Turkish army soldiers (© AFP)
Two more Turkish soldiers have lost their lives and three others sustained injuries in a roadside bomb blast in the southeastern province of Hakkari.
The incident happened after a military convoy on Monday hit a roadside bomb in the Semdinli district in the province.
The bombs were allegedly planted by militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The explosion brings to three the number of Turkish troopers killed over the past 24 hours.
On Sunday, a soldier was killed and three others were wounded in an exchange of fire with suspected PKK militants in the southeastern Diyarbakir Province.
Clashes have been going on on a daily basis between the PKK and Turkish armed forces since Turkey launched airstrikes against PKK positions in Iraq and Turkey as well as purported Daesh (ISIL) targets in Syria.
A shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared as null by the PKK following the Turkish airstrikes against the group, narrowing chances of the two sides reaching a deal in the near future.
According to figures published Saturday by Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency, some 812 PKK militants have been killed in the campaign while 56 members of the Turkish security forces have lost their lives.
Turkey started its air strikes after a Daesh bomb attack on July 20 left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc near Syria border.
The air raids have, however, significantly concentrated on the Kurdish militants.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.