Two Turkish soldiers killed in northern Iraq

Another two Turkish soldiers have been killed during military operations against Kurdish militants in the north of Iraq, Turkey's defence ministry and media said Sunday.

The latest incidents bring to eight the number of Turkish troops killed in the region since Tuesday.

One soldier was killed on Saturday when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off as he and other soldiers were passing. Another soldier was wounded.

Another soldier, wounded on Friday during fighting, died in hospital, the official Anadolu news agency reported.

Turkey has launched several operations in the area against fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara and its Western allies say is a terrorist organisation.

The PKK has training camps and bases in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan and has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, many of them civilians.

Ankara has launched a series of operations against PKK fighters in Iraq and Syria, the latest one in northern Iraq beginning in April.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey would soon launch a new military operation into northern Syria which he said was designed to create a 30-kilometre (20-mile) "security zone" along their border.