In the first incident, militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) attacked an army patrol near Nusaybin in Mardin province, killing one soldier and wounding two others, the sources said.

A third soldier was injured later Sunday in fighting near Semdinli, close to the Iraqi border.

The PKK is fighting for a separate Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey but is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States.

The unrest has killed some 37,000 people since the group took up arms in 1984.