Five Turkish police were killed on Monday when outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants detonated a bomb that struck a police vehicle in eastern Turkey, a local governor said.
Kurdish rebels detonated the device as the bus carrying police special forces was passing by, Bingol province governor Yavuz Selim Kosger said, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Four other police officers were seriously injured, he added.
Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK -- considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies -- first took up arms in 1984 in a campaign for self-rule in the Kurdish majority southeast.
The attack comes as Turkey continues to crack down on the alleged plotters of the July 15 coup.
However Turkish authorities have played down concerns that the massive purge will weaken the army's fight against Kurdish rebels.
Five days after the coup, Turkish war planes dropped bombs on Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq for the first time since the abortive putsch.
