Turkish air force bombs rebels in Iraq

Turkish warplanes bombed northern Iraq Monday, the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and an Iraqi Kurdish official said, as Ankara stepped up its riposte to increased fighting with the rebels.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the air raids, which began at midday and targeted the Sidakan district of Arbil province in the mountainous northeast of Iraq.

Turkey has launched repeated air raids and two ground incursions against suspected PKK rear-bases in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq in recent weeks.

They came as the Turkish army suffered its deadliest 48 hours in two years in its battle with the PKK.

From June 19 to 20, the rebels killed 12 Turkish soldiers in multiple attacks inside Turkey, prompting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pledge to fight the PKK "to the end."

Three more soldiers and a civilian were killed in further rebel attacks on June 21 and 24.

Blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives, according to the Turkish army.

AFP