The death toll of the Turkish soldiers rose to six and ten others wounded in a landmine explosion in southeastern Turkey earlier Thursday, the state-run TRT television channel reported.

Earlier report said that five Turkish soldiers were killed and nine others wounded in the landmine explosion.

According to the report, the explosion occurred when a vehicle carrying some security members ran over a landmine, which is believed to be planted by the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) , in Bestler Dereler region in Sirnak province.

The Turkish security forces were staging operations in fight against the PKK militants in the region, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that security forces are ready for a cross-border operation to crack down on the Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

His remarks came after a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a crowded shopping center in downtown Ankara on Tuesday, leaving six people dead and over 90 others injured.

"If necessity arises, we will take necessary measures without any delay," Erdogan was quoted by the local Turkiye newspaper as reporting.

PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, NATO 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.

The intensity of the fighting eased after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured and imprisoned in 1999, but flared up again in recent years.

Source: Xinhua