Rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) armed with automatic weapons attacked an army vehicle late on Wednesday in the village of Cizre, near the borders of both Iraq and Syria, they said.

An operation was under way to track down the PKK "terrorists", the officials said.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by much of the international community, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.