DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Three soldiers were killed and three wounded when a bomb exploded as their military convoy drove through Turkey's southeastern Hakkari province, Turkish security sources said Sunday.

The remote-controlled blast took place in the Semdinli district, close to Turkey's border with Iraq.

In a separate incident, security forces killed two suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas caught trying to lay a roadside bomb in Daglica, also in Hakkari province.

PKK rebels have carried out a string of attacks in southeast Turkey recently, killing more than 40 security personnel in the past month.

The Turkish military has launched retaliatory air raids on PKK targets in northern Iraq, its first strikes in the region in more than a year.

Both the central government in Baghdad and regional Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq have condemned the Turkish raids as a violation of Iraq's sovereignty.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have died in the conflict. It has bases in northern Iraq from which it crosses the border to attack Turkish targets.