The clashes between the army and members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) took place late Sunday near the town of Besiri in a rural area of Batman province, the local government's statement said.

Among the rebels killed was a woman, it added.

Earlier on Sunday, a roadside bomb, planted by PKK rebels, killed three Turkish soldiers in the province of Mardin, which borders Batman.

Police in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish majority southeast, also last week seized some 90 kilogrammes (198 pounds) of plastic explosives from the Kurdish rebels, local governor Mustafa Toprak announced Monday.

Toprak claimed the PKK wanted to commit "spectacular" attacks with the explosives which he said were capable of destroying a 10-storey building.

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

The rebels have significantly stepped up attacks since their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan declared in May that he was abandoning efforts to seek dialogue with Ankara and the PKK ended a unilateral ceasefire in June.