ANKARA, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Three soldiers of the Turkish security forces were killed in two separate attacks staged by militants of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in northern and eastern provinces on Tuesday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    The report said that a group of PKK militants opened fire on the security forces in northern province of Giresun, killing one soldier.

    In another attack, Two Turkish soldiers died from a PKK attack on a gendarmerie outpost in eastern province of Bingol with long-range weapons, said the report.

    Bingol Governor Irfan Balkanoglu said in the statement that PKK militants attacked the soldiers who were on their way to protect the construction site of a dam in Kigi town in Bingol province at about 6:30 p.m. local time (1530 GMT), leaving the two soldiers seriously injured on the scene.

    Balkanoglu said that they failed to survive despite being rushed to hospital by helicopter, adding that a large-scale operation in pursuit of the PKK rebels, who ran away, were under way.

    In another operation, the security forces captured one PKK member in eastern province of Mus, said the report, adding that they also seized four grenades during the operation.

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

    Turkey has conducted frequent air raids on suspected positions of the PKK in northern Iraq, which serve as a launch pad for the rebel group's cross-border attacks on Turkey.