Three soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a police station in the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli today, security sources said.
It was not clear who was behind the attack, which occurred in a region where Kurdish separatist guerrillas are active.
Ten people were injured in the attack.
The bombing comes amid growing speculation that Ankara will launch a cross-border operation into northern Iraq against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who use the neighbouring country as a base.
The army has said an operation there is necessary, and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said last month he saw eye-to-eye with the army over possible action.
Washington, which like Ankara considers the PKK a terrorist organisation, has urged Turkey not to intervene in Iraq, fearing further instability.
The PKK has been fighting for an ethnic homeland since 1984 and Ankara blames it for more than 30,000 deaths since then.