A military official told the Reuters news agency that the bombing in Diyarbakir was coordinated with another attack in the southeastern province of Mardin. Both attacks were reportedly believed to be the work of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The official said that at least seven people were wounded in the assault in Diyarbakir, most of them believed to be police officers. There were no further details available from the Diyarbakir attack.

The explosion in Mardin province also injured several people near a hospital, according to broadcaster CNN Turk. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. However, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said it was a bomb attack targeting a police vehicle near the Syrian border in a village called Kiziltepe.

An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, told the Associated Press that at least 25 people were wounded in the Kiziltepe attack, including at least five young children.

Deadly attack near Iraq border

Earlier in the day, four Turkish soldiers were killed in a PKK attack near the border with Iraq. The Anadolu Agency added that nine other soldiers were wounded in attack in the mainly Kurdish province of Sirnak, blaming the PKK for this attack as well.

The private Dogan news agency said that insurgents attacked military vehicles with improvised explosives and with rockets fired from inside northern Iraq.

Turkey has been fighting Kurdish militants in the southeast of the country for more than 30 years, in a conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives. Clashes between the PKK and Turkey's security forces resumed last year after a cease-fire collapsed, resulting in several attacks even in major cities like Istanbul, which have been claimed by groups affiliated with the PKK.

Some have accused Turkey of committing war crimes against the insurgents.

ss/msh (AP, Reuters, dpa)