The clashes erupted in a mountainous region near the border with Iran when Turkish troops were pursuing militants from the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), whose passage was detected by a thermal camera, it said.

A security operation was underway to track members of the group who escaped, Anatolia added.

The Turkish army has stepped up action against the PKK since December, conducting several air raids and a week-long ground offensive against rebel hideouts in neighbouring northern Iraq.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.