About 75 militants have been killed in a week of clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's border with Iraq.

Four soldiers were also killed during the violence in the province of Hakkari.

The military said it has launched a large-scale operation involving several thousand soldiers.

Last month, the government said troops had killed 115 Kurdish rebels in separate fighting there.

Officials provided no other details on the clashes, but said troops would continue to battle terrorist activities in the region.

The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, are fighting for self-rule in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated south-east region and maintain bases in northern Iraq from which they launch attacks on Turkish targets.

The conflict between the PKK and the security forces has killed tens of thousands of people since the rebels took up arms in 1984. The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union.

Turkey has raised concerns that the Kurdish rebels could exploit the power vacuum in neighbouring Syria, and has warned it would not tolerate any rebel threats from Syrian territory.

There has been a surge in attacks by the PKK in recent months and the military announced earlier this week that 88 soldiers and 330 rebels had been killed in the conflict in the past nine months.