UPDATE 2 - Soldier martyred in eastern Turkey bomb attack

By Abdullah Celik, Gani Cihan Eser and Hasan Namli

UPDATES WITH FRESH INTRO TO REFLECT INCREASED CASUALTIES

BINGOL, Turkey (AA) - Four soldiers were martyred in a PKK attack in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, following an earlier death caused by a roadside bomb, a security source said.

The first incident in Bingol province saw a soldier martyred by a bomb that was detonated during a counter-terrorism operation around the village of Ortacanak, where two members of the counter-terrorism village guard militia were martyred in a PKK attack Tuesday.

The same source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said four soldiers were later martyred and two injured in a clash with PKK terrorists on the Diyarbakir-Bingol highway at Kiralan, a village in north Diyarbakir province.

The two injured soldiers are still being treated at Diyarbakir Military Hospital, the source said.

A hunt for the perpetrators, backed by air support, in both attacks was launched.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization also by the U.S. and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year, since when more than 600 security personnel have been martyred and around 7,000 PKK terrorists killed.