Members of the Workers Union of Kurdistan (PKK) have refused to consider a police call to surrender and threw grenades, television reports said.
A local police official said two rebels were killed in a shootout that followed, adding that two guns and three hand grenades were seized.
Police said the fingerprints of the dead revealed that they were among the authors of a recent attack in the Kurdish dominated area that left two policemen dead.
The PKK took up arms in southeastern Turkey Kurdish majority in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives. The organization is labeled a terrorist organization by Ankara.
The raid came after a failed strike in the region of Turkey that killed 35 Kurdish civilians, prompting the PKK to call for an "uprising".
Turkey's military command said it carried out the airstrike after a spy drone spotted a group towards its southern border-sensitive under cover of darkness Wednesday night in an area known to be used by militants.
However, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the victims were traders and not separatist rebels that the military had initially claimed.
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