The pair, a lieutenant and a sergeant, were killed Friday during a raid in a rural area near the town of Tunceli, the Tunceli governor's office said.

The army, backed up by the airforce, launched a manhunt for the rebels.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.