The clash occurred during a military offensive against a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) hideout in the Kupeli mountains in Sirnak province, which borders Iraq and Syria, a statement said.

The militants killed, including four women, are believed to have taken part in an October 7 attack on security forces in Sirnak, in which 13 soldiers died, the statement said.

"Operations against the separatist terrorist organisation are continuing uninterrupted and with determination," it added.

The Turkish army said Saturday it had struck a group of up to 60 PKK militants in neighbouring northern Iraq, inflicting "heavy losses", in its first raid across the frontier since the government authorised such operations last week.

The rebels, who have long taken refuge in northern Iraq, use camps in the region as a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets across the border.

Faced with mounting PKK violence, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government secured parliamentary approval in October to order cross-border operations, if deemed necessary, against PKK targets in northern Iraq.

The army has massed an estimated 100,000 troops along the border.

After talks with Erdogan at the White House in early November, US President George W. Bush called the PKK a common enemy and promised to provide Turkey with real-time intelligence on rebel movements.

Bush's pledge was largely seen as tacit US approval for limited cross-border Turkish strikes, mainly air raids, against the rebels.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.