A soldier was also wounded in fighting between the army and rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) near Hozat, in Tunceli province, the sources said.

General Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the general staff, said last week that "large-scale" operations had been launched against the PKK with the arrival of spring, when the rebels step up attacks as snow melts in the mountains, facilitating their movement.

The latest clashes bring the toll to at least 43 PKK militants and 11 soldiers killed since the beginning of the month.

More than 37,000 people have died since the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey in 1984.

Turkey says thousands of rebels have found refuge in neighbouring northern Iraq, where they obtain weapons and explosives for attacks on targets inside Turkey.

At a press conference on Thursday, Buyukanit argued for a cross-border operation into the Kurdish-held enclave to hunt down the rebels.