The five Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters, two of them women, were killed in Tatvan town in Bitlis province, a day after a similar clash in neighbouring Siirt province left two rebels dead.

Fighting usually escalates in spring as snow melts along the mountainous Iraqi-Turkish border, enabling rebels holed up in rough terrain to launch attacks more easily.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and by much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.