The remains, unearthed near the small village of Karacali outside the regional capital Diyarbakir, will be analysed by forensic experts to determine if they belong to humans, the source said.

The dig began Thursday on the orders of the local prosecutor investigating allegations that several people were went missing in the 1990s at the peak of an armed Kurdish insurgency in southeast Turkey were in fact victims of summary killings.

The allegations were made by a former member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who later became an informer for JITEM, the intelligence unit of the paramilitary troops, in remarks published in the Turkish press in January.

The informer, Abdulkadir Aygan, now based in Sweden, claimed to have witnessed the murders of people suspected of links with the rebels and heard some people talks about having committed extrajudicial killings.

He alleged that two people were buried near Karacali, one in 1994 and one in 1996, after being executed by JITEM.

Recent excavations in the neighbouring province of Sirnak led to the discovery of nearly 20 bone fragments and authorities have charged six people in connection with the discovery, among them a colonel who headed paramilitary troops stationed there in 1993-1996.

Some 44,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms against the Turkish state for self-rule in the southeast. The conflict has displaced thousands and led to allegations of gross human rights violations by both sides.