Village guard Kamil Sen and his seven-year-old brother were walking about in a rural area in Hakkari province when the landmine exploded, they added.

It was no clear who planted the mine.

Village guards are locals who are armed by the state to help the Turkish army in its campaign against the PKK.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.

Last year a landmine explosion blamed on Kurdish rebels hit a minibus in Hakkari, killing nine people.

The PKK announced a unilateral truce in August 2010 but threatened in February to end it, citing a lack of dialogue with the government in Ankara.

Fighting in Kurdish-dominated Anatolia, in southeastern Turkey, has eased significantly since the truce, which the PKK had extended in November until general elections expected in June to push for a peaceful solution of the 26-year-old conflict.