The court in the eastern city of Van jailed one defendant for 30 months for insubordination and encouraging insubordination, the sources said.

The others received jail terms of 15 and 20 months for negligence and insubordination, but their sentences were suspended.

The soldiers were abducted by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants who ambushed a military unit at the village of Daglica, near the Iraqi border, on October 21, 2007, killing 12 troops.

They were accused of failing to resist the rebels who took them to PKK bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Critics of the trial said the troops are being punished for "not having died."

The captives were released after nearly two weeks as the PKK handed them over to the Kurdish-run regional government of northern Iraq.

The Daglica ambush shocked Turkey and turned up pressure on the government to take military action against PKK hideouts in northern Iraq.

Four months later, the army crossed the border for a week-long offensive, in which, it said, at least 240 militants were killed and dozens of PKK bases destroyed.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms against Ankara in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.