Fighting broke out with rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) during a routine security sweep in countryside near the town of Cukurca, Haakri province, close to the border with Iraq.

Commando units, backed by air cover, killed eight rebels in the initial contact and later chased down three other militants who were fleeing, the officials said.

There were no losses on the Turkish side.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has stepped up its violent campaign this year.

The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast.