"The pictures show that the soldiers are in quite good health," the news agency said on its Internet site, next to 11 pictures portraying the soldiers by themselves and in groups.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed to have captured the soldiers after an ambush Sunday on a military patrol near the village of Daglica on the Iraqi border, which left 12 soldiers dead.

The Turkish army said Monday that eight soldiers were missing in action after bloody clashes sparked by Sunday's ambush.

The PKK said this was the seventh time it captured Turkish soldiers since launching an armed campaign in 1984 for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.

The rebel group had named the eight soldiers in a statement published by the Europe-based Firat news agency on Monday.