Ankara: Eleven Kurdish guerrillas have been killed in clashes with troops in southeast Turkey, media reports said.

CNN-Turk television reported that the fighting took place in the mountain ranges of Gabar, Kupeli and Kato in the southeast province of Sirnak near the border with Iraq.

One state-employed village guard was wounded in the clashes.

Turkish troops have been carrying out operations inside Turkey following the ending of "Operation Gunes" Feb 29 in which about 10,000 soldiers were sent across the border in Iraq to seek out PKK rebels and their camps.

According to the Turkish military, 240 PKK fighters, 24 Turkish soldiers and three state-employed village guards were killed in the weeklong operation.

Ankara blames the separatist group for the deaths of more than 32,000 people since the early 1980s when the PKK began its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast Turkey.

Source : IANS