ISTANBUL, July 11 (Reuters) - Seven Kurdish guerrillas and a state-sponsored village guard were killed in a clash in the southeastern Turkish province of Sirnak, military sources said on Friday.

The clash began around midnight local time (2100 GMT) on Kato mountain after security forces detected a group of about 20-25 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants entering Turkey from northern Iraq, the sources said.

They said the operation against the guerrillas was continuing and the death toll may rise.

PKK fighters regularly enter Turkey from the mountains of northern Iraq, where several thousand of the militants are based. This year the Turkish military has launched a series of raids against the group in northern Iraq.

The PKK, regarded as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. (Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Matthew Jones)

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