The clashes came as the jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has decided to abandon dialogue with the Turkish government and leave commanders in charge of the 26-year conflict, according to a Kurdish newspaper.

Two soldiers and a member of the "village guard" -- a government-armed militia of local Kurds backing up the army against the rebels -- died in clashes in Sirnak province, Turkey's military said in an online statement.

Two other soldiers were wounded in the clashes, which erupted in a mountainous area close to the Iraqi border when the security forces came upon a group of rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), it said.

The operation to hunt down the militants was continuing, military sources said.

In a separate incident, two village guardsmen were killed when PKK militants attacked a military patrol in a rural area in Siirt province, Anatolia news agency reported.

Following a usual winter lull, violence has broken out anew in the southeast with the arrival of spring when the snow melts, allowing the rebels to move out from their mountainous hideouts in Turkey and neighbouring Iraq.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms against Ankara in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.

The PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, has decided to abandon his attempts at dialogue as the Turkish government showed no interest, the Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Politika reported.

Ocalan's calls for dialogue have been rejected by the government, which insists the PKK should either lay down arms or face the army.

Ocalan told his lawyers during a recent meeting on the prison island of Imrali that he would let PKK commanders decide what course of action to take, adding this was not a call to escalate the conflict, the newspaper said.

Although behind bars, Ocalan has retained his influence over the PKK, often issuing guidelines to the rebels in statements released through his lawyers.