Turkish warplanes bombed an area inside Iraq near the border with Turkey today, an Iraqi Kurdish border guard official said.

The official, Colonel Hussein Tamar, director of the border guard command in the Iraqi Kurdish province of Dahuk, said no one was hurt in the strikes, which targeted an area that was evacuated earlier this month.

Turkey has been repeatedly bombing areas in northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK separatist rebels over the past few weeks, apparently with the support of the United States, whose forces have acknowledged clearing air space for the flights.

Turkish ground troops have also made occasional cross-border raids, although a large-scale ground assault is seen as unlikely, especially in winter.

Turkey says it has the right to pursue PKK guerrillas in cross-border raids after the Iraq-based rebels carried out a number of deadly attacks in Turkey.

U.S. and Iraqi leaders say they support Turkey's right to strike back at the separatists, but want action to be limited in scale and coordinated to avoid destabilising northern Iraq.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.