Anakara, Sep 14 (Xinhua) Eight rebels of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) were killed by Turkish security forces in southeastern Turkey, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Sunday.

The security forces clashed with a group of the PKK militants in an operation Sunday in Kazan Valley in Cukurca town of the southeastern province of Hakkari and killed three PKK militants, bringing the number of rebels killed in the last four days to eight, said the report.

The troops also captured some weapons from the PKK militants during the operation, said the report.

Established in 1978, the PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts over the past two decades.

Turkey's military forces have taken tougher actions against the PKK after the country's legislature gave the government mandate to launch cross-border operations against the rebels in northern Iraq in October 2007 and extended it in 2008.