The soldiers were on foot patrol near the southeast village of Bukardi in Elazig province, in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of the country, when the mine exploded.

The struggle for independence for a Kurdish homeland has claimed some 37,000 lives since the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, took up arms for self-rule in 1984.

The southeast region has grown increasingly unstable since June 2004 when the PKK announced the end of a five-year ceasefire.