By Xinhua
Ankara : Turkey’s military General Staff said Sunday that the number of rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed during its ground and air offensive in northern Iraq had risen to 112.
The Turkish General Staff said in a statement posted on its website that 33 PKK militants and eight Turkish soldiers were killed during a ground offensive into northern Iraq on Sunday.
The latest deaths bring the killed rebels and soldiers to 112 and 15 since Turkey launched a ground incursion into Iraq late Thursday.
Early Friday, the General Staff announced that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) launched a cross-border ground operation into the north of Iraq as of 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Thursday following an artillery bombardment.
The ground operation is backed by Turkish Air Forces jets, the General Staff said, adding that TSK would return to Turkey after it achieves the planned targets.
The Turkish military has launched several cross-border attacks to fight separatist PKK rebels, who use northern Iraq as a launch pad for attacks against Turkey.
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 of the country. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the two-decade conflict.