TUNCELI, Turkey, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Three members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed during clashes with the Turkish military in eastern Turkey on Thursday, army sources said.

Three Turkish soldiers and five PKK separatists were killed in the same violence in the province of Tunceli on Wednesday.

More than 200 soldiers and separatist guerrillas have been killed so far this year, according to a study carried out by a human rights group.

The escalation of the current violence in the east and southeast has prompted calls from the army for a cross-border incursion into northern Iraq to deal with rebels based there.

The AK Party government, reelected last month, has resisted the powerful army's calls, but has also refused to rule out a move into northern Iraq.

Ankara has raised troop levels in the border region as part of a crackdown on the PKK, which has been fighting for an ethnic Kurdish homeland since 1984.

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