Fighting erupted during security operations in rural areas of the Cudi and Gabar mountains, as well as the Bestler-Dereler region in Sirnak province, which borders Iraq and Syria, the Sirnak governor's office said in a statement.

Clashes between the army and rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have significantly escalated this year, and Kurdish militants have claimed a series of bomb attacks in urban centers.

The army has amassed troops in the southeast to step up security operations and stop what it says are increasing rebel incursions from neighboring northern Iraq, where the PKK took refuge after declaring a unilateral ceasefire in 1999. The truce was called off in June 2004.

The Kurdish conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast.