Turkey Launches Air Strikes on Kurdish Rebels in Iraq

Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday, Turkish officials say.

The raids came hours after the deaths of 10 Turkish soldiers in two attacks on Wednesday that were blamed on the rebels, the deadliest in months, the BBC reported.
The government has arrested 51 suspected PKK members this month.

Air force planes struck targets in the Iraqi border regions of Zap and Avasin-Basyan.

On Wednesday, a powerful bomb blast killed nine soldiers in Diyarbakir in south-eastern Turkey. Suspected rebels also shot dead a soldier near the town of Semdinli, close to the border with Iraq.

Observers say Ankara has had some success in cracking down on Kurdish separatists recently and also improved co-operation with the local authorities in northern Iraq where PKK militants are thought to hide.

The banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has been fighting for autonomy since 1984. Since then, the conflict has left more than 40 000 people dead.

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