ANKARA, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- One soldier of the Turkish security forces was killed and two others wounded in an explosion in southeastern Turkey on Monday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    The report said the explosion occurred near the wall of a building at Republic Street in Yuksekova town of Hakkari province at 18:15 local time (1515 GMT), leaving the soldier dead and another soldier and one Turkish citizen wounded.

    The injured were taken to Yuksekova State Hospital for treatment, added the report.

    The militants of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) have been staging attacks against Turkish military and civil targets in eastern and southeastern Turkey.

    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 group's cross-border attacks on Turkey.