ANKARA (AFP) — Turkish warplanes early Thursday bombed "a large group" of Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq after six soldiers were killed in a blast blamed on the militants, the Turkish army said.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) group, spotted in the Avashin-Basyan region along the Turkish border, "was fired on intensively and successfully hit," the statement, posted on the army's website, said.
It made no mention of casualties.
The raid followed the death of six soldiers late Wednesday when their vehicle ran over a landmine near the Iraqi border in southeast Turkey, which military sources said was planted by the PKK.
Eight troops were wounded in the explosion, one of them critically.
Landmine attacks on the security forces have become a hallmark of PKK violence in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast, where the group has waged a bloody separatist campaign since 1984.
The militants have long taken refuge in mountainous bases in northern Iraq, which they use a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets across the border.
Aided by US intelligence, Turkish jets have been bombing PKK hideouts in northern Iraq since December 2007 under a parliamentary authorisation, which expires in October.
In November, Iraq, Turkey and the United States formed a joint committee to track the threat posed by the PKK and enact measures to curb the militants.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.
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