Notepad++ regex search and replace assistance -

i've dug around half hour trying find way this, i'm far regex , ... well, giving up. turn peers help.

i've got large text file has bunch of xml values in , need remove entries.

all entries start with, example, <junktag *> (important note asterisk think, because it's operator in regex), , end </junktag>.

for example: find instances of (except text in middle differs between entries), , delete out of file.

<junktag *> randomgibberish=yes randomgibberese=no </junktag> 

i've tried:

\<junktag *>*\</junktag> 

but doesn't seem working right. i'm thinking need way escape regex operators.

tested in notepad++ 6.3.2 dotall mode:

<junktag \*>.*?</junktag>