Ankara, Jan 31 (IANS): Sixteen Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants were killed on Friday in operations in southeast Turkey, the Turkish military said on Saturday.

The Turkish General Staff said in a statement that nine PKK militants were killed in Cizre, Sirnak province, and seven in Sur, Diyarbakir province. The two districts have been among areas that have been the focus of counter-terror operations of Turkey and military curfews for more than a month, Xinhua reported.

A total of 627 PKK militants were "neutralised" in Cizre and Sur since early December, the statement added.

Meanwhile, a village guard in Sirnak province was killed by PKK militants in the evening of January 30, Dogan News Agency reported on Saturday.

Since early December last year, more than 240 members of the security forces and thousands of PKK militants have been killed in clashes across Turkey and northern Iraq.

The PKK, considered as a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union, resumed its armed campaign against the Turkish government in late July 2015.