Four members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in a military operation in eastern Turkey late Tuesday, private Dogan news agency reported on Wednesday.

Turkish security forces launched the military operation after a group of PKK members blocked a road in Ucocak area in Aricak town of Elazig province on Tuesday, four PKK rebels dead, according to the report.

A total of 330 PKK militants were killed in 974 military operations from February to August this year, according to a statement issued earlier by the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then, over 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group.