The shootout took place in the Kato mounatins in Sirnak province.

On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan broke a two-year embargo to meet the head of the country's main Kurdish party on efforts to end a 25-year Kurdish insurgency.

The talks came a week after Erdogan's government announced that it was working on a reform package to boost the rights of its Kurdish community and encourage Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) rebels to lay down arms.

The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast and east since 1984, in a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.