Two feuding groups within the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) clashed on February 13 after one of them killed three defectors, General Metin Gurak told the Anatolia news agency.

"It has been learned from various sources, that about 20 terrorists were killed and 20 others wounded as a result of the fighting," he said.

The clashes prompted other defections.

The army also had information of a second incident of deadly infighting in another area of northern Iraq last week between a group of PKK militants who wanted to surrender and others who tried to stop them, Gurak said.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and much of the international community, has long taken refuge in mountainous camps in northern Iraq.

The group took up arms for self-rule in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.

Turkish warplanes have bombed PKK bases in northern Iraq since December 2007 under a parliamentary authorisation for cross-border military action, and with the help of intelligence supplied by the United States.