From correspondents in Ankara, Turkey, 07:01 PM IST

Eight Turkish security force soldiers were killed and three others injured in a land mine explosion in eastern Turkey Monday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

The land mine, probably planted by the militants of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), exploded while a military vehicle was passing by near Kemah town of Erzincan province, provincial Governor Ali Gungor was quoted as saying.

The wounded soldiers were taken to a hospital in Erzincan, Gungor said.

Meanwhile, Turkish troops killed a PKK militant, who was trying to enter a Special Forces building in the southern province of Hatay.

The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. About 40,000 people have been killed in the armed insurgency.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)