DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - Three soldiers were killed and three wounded when an explosion struck their military convoy in Turkey's southeastern Hakkari province, Turkish media reported on Sunday.

The blast took place as the convoy travelled through the Semdinli district.

Guerrillas from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have carried out a string of attacks in southeast Turkey recently, killing more than 40 security personnel in the past month.

The Turkish military has launched retaliatory air raids on PKK targets in northern Iraq, its first strikes in the region in more than a year.  

Both the central government in Baghdad and regional Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq have condemned the Turkish raids as a violation of Iraq's sovereignty.  

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have died in the conflict. It has bases in northern Iraq from which it crosses the border to attack Turkish targets.