The soldiers died after members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) attacked a military patrol in a rural zone of Tunceli, local governor Mustafa Taskesen was quoted as saying by the Anatolia press agency.

In a separate attack, two policemen were wounded when gunmen sprayed their car with machine gun fire in Sirnak near the border with Iraq and Syria, the governor of that region said.

Two rebels were killed in a subsequent operation against the assailants, he said.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and by much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.

Fighting between the two sides usually escalates in spring as snow melts along the mountainous Iraqi-Turkish border, enabling rebels holed up in rough terrain to launch attacks more easily.