The incident took place near the ancient city of Hasankeyf in the mainly Kurdish Batman province on Monday.

The outlawed Separatist Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting the Turkish army since 1984, ordered a unilateral ceasefire from October 1, saying it hoped this would pave the way for a dialogue to resolve the conflict.

But the truce, like previous ones called by the PKK, was quickly rejected by Turkey.

Only five days after the ceasefire, two soldiers were wounded in eastern Turkey's remote Tunceli province.

Another soldier was killed a week later in a clash in the southeastern province of Siirt, and two PKK rebels were killed in separate fighting in the Sirnak province, also in the southeast.

The ceasefire came after a sharp rise in violence by the PKK, which Turkey says uses neighboring northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks on Turkish agents across the border.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984, when the PKK, classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Turkish southeast.