Clashes Wednesday in Kavakli in Hakkari province between a Turkish army unit and separatist rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) left four soldiers dead, the military said in a statement released on the Internet.

Another soldier was killed and 15 others lightly wounded, including a brigade general, when a helicopter bringing reinforcements to the combat zone crashed accidentally, the statement said.

Five rebels were killed in separate clashes with Turkish security forces in Semdinli and Sirnak, near the Iraqi border, the military said.

Turkish warplanes have been regularly bombing Kurdish rebel hideouts across the border in northern Iraq since an October 3 attack by PKK militants against a Turkish border outpost that killed 17 soldiers.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.

Turkish officials estimate about 2,000 PKK rebels are holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, where they allegedly enjoy free movement and obtain weapons and explosives for attacks in Turkey.