ANKARA, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- One soldier of the Turkish security forces was killed and eight others wounded when a roadside land mine went off in southeastern Turkey on Monday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    The Governor's Office of the southeastern province of Sirnak was quoted as saying that the land mine, planted by militants of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), exploded while a military vehicle was passing by on Sirnak-Cizre road in the southeast.

    One non-commissioned officer was killed and eight soldiers injured, the office was quoted as saying, adding that the wounded soldiers were taken to Sirnak Military Hospital for treatment.

    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 southeast Turkey. About 40,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.