Turkish jets bomb northern Iraq: army

ISLAMABAD - Agence France-Presse

Hürriyet photo

Turkish jets have bombed Kurdish militant hideouts in northern Iraq, home to members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the army said today."Two groups of targets belonging to the separatist terrorists in the regions of Zap and Kahurk were hit with efficiency in the evening of February 11 by Turkish air force jets," the general staff said in a statement posted on its website.The statement said the planes returned to base without incident and did not give any details on possible casualties on the PKK side in the second such raid in eight days.Fighting between Turkish forces and PKK militants has escalated in recent months.In October, Turkey launched a major air and land offensive against the militants in the southeast of the country and in neighboring northern Iraq after 24 of its troops were killed in a night-time ambush by the militants.The PKK took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives. It is labelled a terrorist outfit by Ankara and much of the international community.