A landmine planted by terrorists in the rural area of eastern Turkey went off on Wednesday, injuring three soldiers of the Turkish security forces, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

The blast occurred when the soldiers were staging an operation in the rural area of Palu town of Elazig province, said the report.

The injured soldiers were sent to a hospital in Elazig for treatment, said the report, adding that operations are still under way in the region.

The outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) has been active in this region in Turkey and has launched similar attacks in the past.

However, it was not immediately known whether the mine was planted by the PKK.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking decades of strife that has claimed more than 30, 000 lives.

Source: Xinhua