Anatolia news agency reported that two of the soldiers died when they stepped on a landmine planted by the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) while patrolling a rural area in the mountainous province of Tunceli.

The third was killed in a clash with PKK militants in Sirnak province, near the border with Iraq, late Friday, the army said on its website, adding that a security operation against the rebels in the region was continuing.

Another landmine explosion blamed on the PKK killed a villager in a field in Bingol, it said.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.