Turkish warplanes bombed targets of the banned Kurdish Workers'
Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq on Sunday, private NTV
television reported.
Turkish aircraft struck important targets of the PKK in northern
Iraq between 15:00 to 16:00 local time (1300 to 1400 GMT), said the
report.
A Turkish air force
F-16 figher jet refuels in flight. Turkish warplanes bombed targets
of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq
on Sunday.
Turkish warplanes bombed several villages in northern Iraq
Sunday but caused no civilian casualties, a spokesman for Iraqi
Kurdistan's Peshmerga security forces was quoted as confirming.
This is the third air raid aimed at the PKK bases in northern
Iraq in no more than a week as separatist PKK rebels use the Iraqi
border areas as a launch pad for attacks against Turkey.
Last Sunday, Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes at some
villages near the border in the Qandil mountains, killing at least
five PKK members and one woman, and wounding six people, according
to a Kurdish security source.
Security operations are underway in southeastern and eastern
Turkey as 100,000 Turkish troops have massed along the borders with
Iraq in preparations for possible cross-border operations to crush
the about 3,000-strong PKK rebels.
The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist
group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating
an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have
been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.
Turkish F-16 jets
prepare to take off from military airbase, in the southeastern
Turkish city of Diyarbakir in this November 7, 2007 file picture.
Turkish warplanes targeting Kurdish rebels bombed villages deep in
northern Iraq on Dec. 16, 2007, killing one woman and forcing
hundreds of people to flee their homes, local officials
said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2007)
