Air strikes launched in retaliation for a rebel raid killed 19 Kurdish fighters in Turkey's southeast, the military said Saturday. Six soldiers died in the violence, officials said.

The military initially said two soldiers were killed in the attack late Friday but later raised the death toll to six, saying four more troops died while pursuing suspected rebels in Hakkari province.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, denied the military's claims of 19 rebel deaths, saying "not a single guerrilla was killed." The European-based, pro-Kurdish news agency Firat also quoted a rebel leader, Zubeyir Aydar, as saying PKK commanders "were on top of their duties."

The military called the strikes in retaliation for a PKK attack earlier Friday on a military outpost in Hakkari province, an area where the borders of Turkey, Iran and Iraq meet.

Firat said the PKK attacked the station with anti-aircraft guns and mortar shells, preventing the military from sending reinforcements to the area.

Aydar said the military suffered a major blow during the attack on the Hakkari outpost, and was making the false statements in part to disguise the defeat. He accused the military of engaging in psychological warfare to try to demoralize rebel supporters.

Kurdish rebels have been fighting since 1984 for self-rule in Turkey's southeast. Tens of thousands of people have died in the violence. The U.S. and Turkey consider the PKK a terrorist group.

The PKK maintains bases in the north of neighboring Iraq that serve as a launch pad for attacks on targets inside Turkey.

Turkey has launched several aerial attacks into northern Iraq this year, as well as one major, cross-border ground operation in February. Since then, clashes between rebels and Turkish troops have erupted along Turkey's border with Iraq.

On Saturday, the state-run Anatolia news agency said troops, backed by air power, were engaged in a separate operation against the rebels in Sirnak province, which also borders Iraq and is just east of Hakkari.

The military claimed in its statement Saturday that it dealt a major blow to rebels during a cross-border air raid deep into northern Iraq in early May.

It said one rebel leader, Cemil Bayik, was forced to seek refuge in a neighboring country with a large number of his followers and another, Bahoz Erdal, had to leave a mountain haven for another base further from the Turkish border.

The military also said another, unnamed PKK commander had fled to the mountains away from the fighting zones. Turkish media speculated that the commander could be Murat Karayilan, who has been heading the group since the capture and imprisonment of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.

The military claimed that some 200 rebels laid down arms and found refuge in areas inhabited by local Iraqi Kurds following the air operation on Mount Qandil in Iraq on May 1-2.

"The process of (the PKK leaders') sweet dreams turning into a nightmare has begun," the military said in its statement.

The PKK denied the military's claims.