The Turkish army on Monday said that 16 of its soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack at the weekend carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), one of the deadliest attacks ever carried out by the group.

"Sixteen of our comrades in arms were martyred" in Sunday's attack on two armoured military vehicles in the southeastern Hakkari region, the army said in a statement, adding that six others suffered non-life threatening injuries.