Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels attacked a police post at Yedisu near Bingol, killing the four soldiers and wounding three others, they said.

In the ensuing manhunt two rebels were shot dead.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and much of the international community, has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and southeast since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Since December the Turkish army has repeatedly cracked down on the separatist group in the southeast of the country as well as in neighbouring northern Iraq where it also carried out air raids against rebel positions.

Ankara has blamed the PKK and groups close to it for a string of bomb attacks, including one on July 27 in Istanbul which left 17 people dead and more than 150 wounded.