KEY POINTS:
TUNCELI, Turkey - Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq overnight in a new cross-border offensive, the General Staff said.
The Turkish military said the offensive against outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas inside Turkey and across the border in northern Iraq would continue.
"Turkish Air Force warplanes struck important targets of the PKK/KONGRA-GEL terror group in northern Iraq" the General Staff statement, posted on its website, said.
The military said the Turkish warplanes returned safely to bases after the attacks. It said it was too early to give any casualty figures.
Iraqi Kurdish security forces said they had suffered no casualties in the bombing.
Ankara blames the PKK - considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union - for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since it began an armed struggle for a separate Kurdish homeland in 1984.
It says 3,000 PKK fighters are based in camps in northern Iraq and that they have killed dozens of Turkish troops in recent months.
But the United States and the European Union fear a further escalation in tension could destabilise the region.
- REUTERS
