The shootout erupted late Friday in Cizre town, in Sirnak province on the border with Iraq, when police began trailing two men, dressed in civilian clothes, reconnoitring near the building, and the suspects opened fire on the officers.

Several hand grenades were seized with the militants who belonged to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The PKK has significantly stepped up attacks against Turkish targets since May after jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said he was abandoning efforts for peace with Turkey and the rebels called off a unilateral truce.

In their bloodiest attack in two years, the PKK killed 12 soldiers last month in an attack on a border unit at the Iraqi frontier, while five soldiers and a teenager were killed in a bomb attack in Istanbul claimed by the rebels.

Five members of the security forces and 12 rebels were killed in clashes inside Turkey on Thursday, which prompted a Turkish air strike on the rebels' rear bases in northern Iraq on Friday.

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