The clashes took place in a rural area of the Siirt province, near Pervari, where security forces mounted an offensive on the basis of information given by an ex-rebel who turned himself in, it said.

A member of the auxiliary militia was injured in the fighting.

The outlawed PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the United States and the European Union, has stepped up its military activity this year.

The group has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish areas in the east and southeast since 1984 in a bloody conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.