One Turkish soldier was killed and 20 others were wounded when a car bomb blamed on Kurdish militants exploded in the Kurdish-majority southeast, the army said on Monday.

One Turkish soldier was killed and 20 others were wounded when a car bomb blamed on Kurdish militants exploded in the Kurdish-majority southeast, the army said on Monday.

In a statement, the army said a total of 23 people were wounded in the blast which took place late on Sunday, 20 of them soldiers and three of them civilian family members.

The car bomb detonated near a military command complex in the Dicle district of the Kurdish majority province of Diyarbakir, a security source told AFP, blaming the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The command post and an adjacent housing area for families was seriously damaged in the attack, the Dogan news agency reported.

Police stopped a suspicious car after the attack but the suspects inside opened fire, injuring a judge and three police officers before they fled, the agency said.

Turkey has been waging a major military offensive against the PKK, listed as a terror group by Ankara, after a two-year fragile ceasefire collapsed last summer.