Diyarbakir, Turkey–A landmine believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels killed 10 people travelling in a minibus in southeastern Turkey Thursday, a local security source said.
The civilian vehicle was taking villagers to Hakkari city centre when it hit the mine near the village of Gecitli in Hakkari province, on the border with Iraq and Iran, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The blast also wounded three people.
Security forces immediately headed to the area to scour the scene for more explosives, the source said.
Immediate suspicions for the blast fell on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984.
The blast comes during a truce that the PKK announced between 13 August and 20 September that covered the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and a referendum on constitutional changes held on 12 September.
In remarks published in the Spanish daily El Mundo last week, senior PKK leader Murat Karayilan warned that full-scale fighting could resume if Ankara continued its "attacks and detentions of Kurds".
Karayilan also said that the rebels would lay down arms if Turkey adopted a system of regional autonomy similar to that in Spain.
The government last year announced a plan to increase rights and liberties for its Kurdish population in a bid to pressure the PKK into abandoning arms.
But it has said it will not take any steps that would jeopardise the country's territorial unity.
The plan has since ran into trouble amid increasing public anger over a series of deadly PKK attacks against security forces since last year.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in the Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed around 45,000 lives.
