Fighting erupted early in the day between Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels and soldiers on a security sweep in Tunceli province, a region that has recently seen heavy fighting, security sources said.

Two rebels were killed in the clash. On Thursday, three rebels were killed in the same province.

Eight soldiers were wounded Friday in the southeastern province of Sirnak, on the border with Syria and Iraq, when explosives, believed to have been planted by PKK rebels, were set off as a military vehicle was passing, the governor's office said.

Two of the soldiers sustained serious injuries, it said.

The Anatolia news agency had earlier said the blast was caused by a remote-controlled landmine.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, often uses landmines in its bloody campaign for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish east and southeast of Turkey.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since the rebel movement took up arms in 1984 against the Ankara government.

Since last month, the army has been conducting large-scale operations in the east and southeast to hunt down the rebels as the arrival of spring allows them easier movement in the region.