Turkey's security forces have killed as many as 115 Kurdish rebels during a major security offensive over the past two weeks, the country's interior minister said on Sunday.

Idris Naim Sahin said the rebels were killed in an offensive backed by airpower near the town of Semdinli in Hakkari province, which sits on the border with Iraq. He said the offensive began on 23 July.

Sahin provided few other details, but said the security forces were trying to block the rebels' escape routes into northern Iraq.

Private NTV television said earlier that as many as 2,000 troops were taking part in the offensive and that public access to some roads was blocked.

Earlier on Sunday, rebels fired on military posts in Hakkari, including the paramilitary station near the village of Gecimli, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the frontier.

Orhan Alimoglu, the governor of Hakkari, said the attack near Gecimli triggered clashes that claimed the lives of 22 rebels, soldiers and village guards. At least 15 soldiers, another village guard and five civilians were also injured. There were no reports of any casualties in the attacks on the other posts.

The attack comes some six weeks after a similar raid on a military unit, also in Hakkari, killed 18 rebels and eight soldiers, prompting Turkey's military to send warplanes and attack helicopters to hit Kurdish rebel targets inside Iraq.

The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), are fighting for autonomy in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast region and to maintain bases in northern Iraq, from where they launch hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets. The conflict between the PKK and Turkish government forces has killed tens of thousands of people since the rebels took up arms in 1984.

The group is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. Turkey has raised concerns that Kurdish rebels could now also exploit a power vacuum in neighbouring Syria and warned it would "not tolerate" any rebel threats from the Syrian territory. Ankara said last month that Turkish Kurdish rebels have seized control of five towns along the border in collaboration with Syria's Democratic Union Party, an ethnic Kurdish grouping. It has launched military drills near the frontier in a show of muscle aimed at the rebels.

The military on Sunday sent reinforcements to Hakkari, launching ground and air operations to chase the rebels. State-run TRT television said attack helicopters were firing on the rebels' escape routes in the rugged, mountainous border region.

Turkey's leaders condemned the attack, which came during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, and said the government was determined to keep up the fight against the PKK.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, said the attack was a "dastardly assault" and issued a warning to countries allegedly backing the PKK, saying Turkey was "powerful enough to bring into line enemy-country (puppet masters) who hold the strings of the terror organisation". Erdogan has recently ruled out negotiating with the PKK and said state security forces would continue their struggle against the group until it lays down arms. The government has acknowledged that some officials have in the past held secret talks with the rebels, but these were subsequently abandoned.

"Terrorism is, sooner or later, doomed to lose and to go up in smoke in the face of the people's resolve and determination," Erdogan said on Sunday.

An estimated 20 percent of Turkey's 75 million population are Kurds. The government is trying to appease the Kurdish minority by granting it more cultural rights.

Erdogan's government recently announced plans to introduce elective Kurdish classes in schools, building on moves that allowed Kurdish language television broadcasts, Kurdish-language institutes and private Kurdish courses.

However, the government refuses demands by Kurdish activists and politicians for full education in the Kurdish language, fearing it would divide Turkey along ethnic lines.