The soldiers, a lieutenant and a sergeant, were killed Saturday during a raid in a rural area near the town of Tunceli, the Tunceli governor's office was quoted by Anatolia news agency as saying.

The army, backed up by the airforce, launched a manhunt for the rebels.

Two police officers were killed and nine injured in the same province on Sunday when a group of rebels opened fire on grounds where they were playing football on the outskirts of the Munzur, local security sources said.

Also on Sunday, two members of the "village guardians" militia, set up by Ankara to fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), died in a grenade and rifle attack by the rebels in the Daglica area in Hakkari province, near the Iraqi border, provincial governor Muammer Turker told Anatolia.

Another militia member and three construction workers were injured in the attack, Turker added.

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