Nine soldiers killed in SE Turkey bomb

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Nine Turkish soldiers were killed in a bomb explosion on Wednesday in the mainly Kurkish southeast, the military said, in the deadliest attack on security forces in months.

A security source, who declined to be named, told Reuters the remotely-detonated bomb, was the work of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist guerrillas.

The military launched ground and air operations against the separatists following the blast in the province of Diyarbakir,

"A tank and an armored personnel vehicle were patrolling for road security. An explosion happened after the tanks passed and nine died," armed forces commander, General Ilker Basbug, Basbug told a news conference in Ankara.

He did not blame any particular group for the attack.

Separately a suspected suicide bomber attacked a university in Ankara, but no one was wounded.

Security forces are fighting PKK rebels in a 25-year separatist conflict that has claimed the lives of 40,00 people and hurt stability in the region.

The PKK, branded a terrorist organization by Washington and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 to carve out an ethnic homeland in the predominantly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

The government has recently launched a crackdown on Kurdish militants and Kurdish politicians suspected of having links with the PKK in raids that threaten to inflame tensions in the southeast.

Turkey has also improved cooperation with northern Iraqi authorities against PKK guerrillas based in Iraq from where they stage attacks into Turkish territory.

A poor showing by the ruling AK Party in the southeast in last month's municipal elections has also put renewed pressure on the government to address the root cause of the conflict. Kurds have long complained of discrimination against them by the state and have called for political and cultural rights.

(Writing by Thomas Grove and Ibon Villelabeitia)