Ankara - The Turkish military on Friday said 35 Kurdish separatists had been killed in clashes this week on Mount Cudi in the southeastern province of Sirnak.

A General Staff spokesman told reporters that the number of Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) deaths was learnt through intercepted PKK communications.

Recent weeks have seen an increase in the number and intensity of PKK attacks on Turkish military targets. Five Turkish soldiers and five PKK rebels were killed late Wednesday in clashes in the province of Hakkari.

On October 3, 17 soldiers were killed in a PKK attack on a military border post and in response Turkey has staged almost daily aerial bombardments of suspected PKK positions inside northern Iraq.

Ankara blames the separatist group for the deaths of more than 35,000 people since the early 1980s when the PKK began its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east of Turkey.

The PKK is considered by the United States and the European Union to be a terrorist group. (dpa)