At least 20 soldiers have been killed in simultaneous attacks on police and military installations in southeastern Turkey

At least 20 soldiers have been killed in simultaneous attacks on police and military installations in southeastern Turkey, according to local reports.

A security source said the attacks were carried out by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in several locations in Cukurca and Yuksekova in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Television reports said the army initiated an air-supported operation against the fighters in response and the head of the general staff and some commanders had gone to the region.

The deaths come a day after a landmine explosion, also in the southeast, killed eight people in an attack which security sources also blamed on Kurdish fighters.

On Tuesday, a mine planted on a rural road in the Guroymak district of Bitlis province in the mainly Kurdish area, was detonated by remote control as a police car was passing by, the Anatolia news agency quoted governor Nurettin Yilmaz as saying.

Five policemen and three civilians, including a two-year-old girl, were killed in Tuesday's attack. Three injured people were being treated at an intensive care unit.