The 27 zones set up in the regions of Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari add to others created in June, the military said in a statement posted on its official website.

They are to stay in place until December 10 and are aimed at stopping the flow of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels using northern Iraq as a rear base for operations for southern Turkey, it said.

At the same time, security officials in the southeast said a big army sweep was underway to find Kurdish rebels who used heavy weapons to attack a military post in Baskale, near the border with Iran. A soldier was killed in the attack.

Turkey, the European Union and the United States consider the PKK a terrorist organisation. More than 37,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 to fight for an independent Kurdish state.