The clash took place in a mountainous area of Bingol province in the southeast, which has a majority Kurdish population, after an army operation launched when the trail of rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was picked up, the military statement said.

The bodies of four rebels and their weapons were found after the fighting during which an officer and a member of an auxiliary militia were wounded, it said.

Three rebels were killed Tuesday in fighting in the province of Sirnak in the southeast of the country.

The PKK announced in August 2010 a unilateral truce but threatened last month to end it, complaining of a lack of dialogue with the government in Ankara.

It did not overtly say that it would resume its attacks but said it would defend itself "in the most efficacious way" against operations by Turkish forces, but would not be the first to attack.

Fighting in Kurdish-dominated Anatolia, in southeastern Turkey, has lessened significantly since the truce, which the PKK had extended in November until general elections expected in June, to push for a peaceful solution of the 26-year-old conflict.

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