ANKARA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish military said Friday that its security forces had intercepted a rebel radio communication of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) indicating that up to 35 PKK militants were killed in recent clashes with government troops.

    The military's spokesman Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak revealed the death toll to reporters while reading out a transcript of the radio communication among the rebels on Oct. 14 when government troops with Cobra helicopters attacked a group of PKK militants who were allegedly trying to infiltrate into Turkey from northern Iraq.

    The intercepted conversation indicated that the rebels buried some bodies and took away the rest apparently to disguise their heavy losses, according to the spokesman.

    The radio communication also suggested the rebels might have shot dead fellow militants who were seriously wounded and could not move.

    Earlier on Oct. 3, at least 17 Turkish soldiers were killed when PKK militants based in northern Iraq attacked Aktutun Gendarmerie Border Unit in Semdinli town in the province of Hakkari, and 23 PKK militants were killed in the clashes.

    The tension is mounting after the deadliest attack happened in the year and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the military have pledged to intensify a campaign to crush the outlawed PKK.

    The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.