Turkish warplanes bomb Kurdish militants in Iraq
SULAYMANIYA, IRAQ — Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish separatist positions Monday in northern Iraq, the head of Iraq’s border guards in Dahuk said.
Fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, use remote parts of northern Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdistan region as a base to launch attacks in southeastern Turkey. Turkey often retaliates with airstrikes and artillery fire.
The head of the Dahuk province border guards, Col. Hussein Tamor, said no civilians were hurt because the area was unpopulated. He did not know of any rebel casualties.
The Turkish military confirmed the strike, saying the aircraft had returned safely and there had been no civilian casualties.
Ankara has boosted military action against the PKK in recent months. A Turkish army officer and two soldiers were killed along with four Kurdish separatist rebels in clashes in eastern Turkey last month.
Turkey, the European Union and the U.S. refer to the PKK as a terrorist organization. Since 1984, when the PKK took up arms to establish an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey, about 40,000 people have been killed.
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