By Xinhua
Ankara : At least 175 rebels of the separatist Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed in air strikes by Turkish planes in northern Iraq on Dec 16, a Turkish Army statement said Tuesday.
It said that Turkey’s military has hit more than 200 PKK positions in northern Iraq since Dec 16, killing hundreds of rebels.
Turkish planes carried out strikes at some villages near the border in the Qandil mountains Dec 16.
The military said other hideouts were hit in a cross-border air operation Dec 22 followed by artillery fire.
The Turkish military has recently launched several cross-border attacks to fight separatist PKK rebels, who use northern Iraq as a launch pad for attacks against Turkey.
The PKK, considered by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, has been fighting Turkish military since 1984 to establish a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.