The soldiers, 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.

Then on Saturday two members of the "village guardians" a militia, set up by Ankara to fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), died in a grenade and rifle attack by the rebels in the Daglica area in Hakkari province, near the Iraqi border, provincial governor Muammer Turker told Anatolia.

Another militia member and three construction workers were injured in the attack, Turker added.

The 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.