Turkish security forces have killed 54 Kurdish militants during a major operation to root out Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels from two urban centres, according to official media.
The state-run Anatolia news agency reported that "54 terrorists have been neutralised" in the southeastern towns of Cizre and Silopi.
25 militants were killed in the first two days of the operation, which began on Tuesday.
However, the latest figure more than doubles the number of casualties, implying heavy fighting in the towns on Thursday.
The two towns at the centre of the operation, which reportedly involved some 10,000 troops, are both in the Kurdish-dominated Sirnak province where the military has imposed blanket curfews.
The government says the operation is needed to eliminate militants who were effectively taking over the towns by building barricades and digging trenches.
Kurdish activists have accused the army of acting with impunity and turning large parts of the towns to rubble.
Images from the area show troops clashing with militants in the otherwise deserted streets. Cizre has a population of some 100,000, and Silopi more than 80,000.
Turkish police fired water cannon and tear gas to break up a crowd of several thousand people protesting in the city of Diyarbakir against the security operations.
The protests coincided with a news conference where the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtas had called for "resistance" against the operations.
The operations mark a new escalation in five months of fighting with the PKK since a two-and-a-half year truce collapsed in July.
The PKK launched a formal insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, initially fighting for Kurdish independence although it now presses more for greater autonomy and rights for the country's largest ethnic minority. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead.
