By Xinhua,
Ankara : Turkish army on Monday morning hit the Kurdish rebel hideouts in neighboring northern Iraq, a military statement said.
The air operation staged by Turkish army in northern Iraq against the targets of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) came after 15 Turkish soldiers were killed at Friday’s PKK attack in Hakkari province in southeastern Turkey.
The statement of the Turkish General Staff posted on its website said the PKK group was hit in the Avashin-Basyan area in northern Iraq, and two other PKK targets were shelled late Sunday in what the Turkish General Staff said was “a continuing pursuit of the terrorists”.
On Sunday, the Turkish General Staff said its warplanes bombed the PKK rebel bases in Avasin Basyan region in northern Iraq on Saturday.
The Turkish military also reported that 15 of its soldiers were killed when the PKK attacked Aktutun Gendarmerie Border Unit in Semdinli town in Hakkarion province on Friday afternoon from northern Iraq.
Twenty-three PKK militants were also killed in the clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces, the military added.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.
Turkey has conducted frequent air raids on suspected positions of the PKK in northern Iraq. In February, it also launched an eight-day ground incursion into Iraq.