The blast ocurred Saturday in a mountainous area in Sirnak province near the Iraqi border, a hotbed of activity of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the statement said.

Four other explosive devices planted in the same area were defused by the seurity forces, it added.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has waged a 24-year armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast in a conflict that has claimed about 37,000 lives.