The latest deaths bring to 11 the number of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels killed in the Kupeli mountains in Sirnak province in two days, the general staff said in a statement on its website.

Two other PKK rebels were captured during the fighting, it said, without mentioning losses on the Turkish side.

The operation in Sirnak coincided with a Turkish air strike earlier Wednesday targetting PKK bases in neighbouring northern Iraq, the third such bombing raid that the army has confirmed since December 16.

Turkish troops also carried out a small-scale ground incursion into the mountainous enclave earlier this month in pursuit of PKK rebels who attempted to infiltrate Turkey.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 soldiers in its southeast near the Iraqi border, and in October the Ankara government secured parliamentary authorisation for a cross-border operation to hunt down PKK rebels.

The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984, in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

The group is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.