TUNCELI, Turkey, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Five Turkish soldiers were wounded in an attack by Kurdish separatist rebels on an army convoy in eastern Turkey on Tuesday, military sources said.

Army helicopters later bombed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels who carried out the attack in mountainous Tunceli province, the sources said.

One soldier was in critical condition, they said. Fighting continued and the army had sent more troops to the area.

NATO member Turkey has staged almost daily air strikes against suspected PKK bases in northern Iraq and in Turkey since a PKK attack killed 17 soldiers near the border earlier this month, the worst single attack on the military in more than a year.

A similar attack on a border post last year led Turkey to launch a brief large-scale land operation in Iraq.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union as well as Turkey, launched its armed campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. (Writing by Selcuk Gokoluk; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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