Turkish military says it hit PKK targets in N. Iraq

Turkey's military said its fighter jets attacked Kurdish separatist targets in northern Iraq yesterday and killed a number of guerillas.

The raids followed a double bomb attack in Istanbul on Sunday night in which 17 people were killed and which authorities suggest were the work of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The PKK denies any involvement in the bombings and no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, the worst in Turkey since 2003.

The army said its warplanes destroyed a cave being used by some 30 to 40 PKK militants in the remote Qandil mountains and that some rebels had been killed. They also struck other targets in the Zap area of northern Iraq.

The PKK uses northern Iraq as a base from which to stage attacks on Turkish territory.

Turkey blames the PKK, which is fighting for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey, for the deaths of 40,000 people in the past 25 years.

"The cave was destroyed totally in the air attacks. Most of those terrorists outside the cave, along with an unspecified number inside, were killed," the military said in a statement on its website.

Abdulla Ibrahim Ahmed, head of nearby Sangesar district, said: "There was Turkish aerial bombardment on the Qandil region from about 11 to 12 this morning. The bombardment caused structural damage but there were no casualties".