Turkish forces kill 18 Kurdish rebels

Sixteen were killed in the Cizre district of Sirnak province near the Iraqi border on Friday, while another two died in the Sur district of Diyarbakir, the army said in a statement.

Also in Sur, one soldier was wounded in a gun attack on Saturday while three other soldiers and a civil servant were also wounded when a remote-controlled bomb laid by militants was detonated.

The security forces detained 58 members of the PKK in the town of Silopi in Sirnak on Friday as they attempted to flee the area disguised as residents, the army added.

A new upsurge of violence between the security forces and Kurdish rebels erupted in July in the wake of attacks blamed on Islamic extremists, shattering a fragile two-and-a-half year truce.

Silopi and Cizre as well as much of Sur have been under a blanket curfew since early December as Turkey security forces seek to flush out Kurdish militants from the towns.

The army says that that a total of 426 PKK members have been killed in the three towns since the current campaign started.

With the curfew-affected area closed to the outside observers and the media, it has not been possible to independently verify the figures.

Silopi and Cizre as well as much of Sur have been under a blanket curfew since early December

The government says such measures are needed to drive out PKK fighters who have effectively taken over towns by erecting barricades and digging trenches, but Kurdish activists say the use of force has been wildly excessive.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 3,100 Kurdish militants had been killed in 2015 in PKK strongholds in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.

Earlier this week, three female Kurdish political activists were killed in fighting in a curfew-hit town in southeast Turkey in the offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said three of its female campaigners and another as-yet-unidentified man had been shot and badly wounded in Silopi town in Sirnak province late on Monday, accusing the authorities of failing to evacuate them despite pleas. All four died.

In December, a Turkish army operation in southeast Turkey killed 70 suspected members of the PKK marking a new escalation in the fighting.

At the time, local media reported that about 10,000 troops backed by tanks had been deployed in the southeast to rout young PKK supporters from urban areas.

The PKK launched a formal insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, initially fighting for Kurdish independence although it now presses more for greater autonomy and rights for the country's largest ethnic minority.

The conflict has left tens of thousands dead.