The three soldiers, including a non-commissioned officer, were killed when their vehicle passed over a mine placed by the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the province of Tunceli, local security sources said.

On Friday night, a member of the PKK was killed in a rural part of the neighbouring Bingol province while preparing an operation, the province's governor Vehbi Avuc said, without giving details.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has stepped up its attacks this year in its fight for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and southeast.