The  Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) says its militants have killed 31 Turkish soldiers in an attack and ensuing clashes in southeast Turkey.

According to the PKK-affiliated ANF news agency, a total of 31 soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, were killed in the militants’ attacks in the Daglica district of the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari on Sunday.

At least six other soldiers were also injured in the offensive, said the agency, adding that the death toll is likely to go higher.

Following the deadly incident, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called an emergency meeting overnight to address the worsening security conditions in the country.

But the Turkish army said on Monday that it lost 16 soldiers in the PKK attacks a day earlier. “Sixteen of our comrades in arms were martyred” in Sunday’s clashes, read a statement from the army.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Hürriyet Daily reported that 150 PKK militants took part in Hakkari’s deadly operation in which 400 kilograms of explosives were used, adding that 19 Turkish soldiers were killed in the fatal incident.

Earlier in the day, the Turkish army said that it has launched retaliatory attacks against the PKK positions.

At least 13 PKK positions were targeted by two Turkish F-4 and two F-16 warplanes during a “heavy air campaign” in the southeast of the country, the army said.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.

There has been renewed conflict between the PKK and Turkish security forces since July. Turkey has been launching airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq after a Daesh bomb attack left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on July 20.