The operation, backed by helicopter gunships, took place in mountainous terrain near the town of Pulumur, it said.

The main road between Tunceli and the neighbouring province of Erzurum to the east was closed early in the morning as the crackdown began, the report said.

Tunceli, a stronghold of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) stronghold, is about 600 kilometres (370 miles) north of the Iraqi border, where tensions have risen amid Turkish threats to launch a military strike on PKK bases in northern Iraq.

The army had clamped down on PKK positions in Tunceli on Wednesday after militants detonated two remote-control bombs as soldiers combed the countryside for landmines.

The military has reported killing more than 60 rebels in operations since October 21 when a PKK ambush near the Iraqi border left 12 soldiers dead. Eight soldiers were captured.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's eastern and southeastern provinces. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.