Three special police force members and three militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed when the rebels ambushed a patrol on a highway late Friday in Hakkari province, according to security sources.

Three village guards were killed and three wounded in separate fighting overnight when PKK members attacked a military post in Bitlis province, according to the governor's office.

Village guards are militia units usually made up of ethnic Kurds armed by the Turkish state to provide support in combatting the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its allies.

About 45,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms for autonomy in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984.