The air force launched a "successful" operation against 60 targets in the Qandil and Hakurk regions late Wednesday, said the General Staff in a statement posted on its website. The aircraft involved in the operation all returned safely to their bases in Turkey, it added.

Some 168 targets in the Qandil region were under an intense artillery fire before the military operation began, said the military.

Those raids are the first to be launched since last year.

Turkey's operations both at home and in the north of Iraq, used as a safe haven by the PKK, "will continue until it is eradicated", said the military.

The operation follows a deadly attack on Wednesday in Cukurca town, in the southeast of the country by the PKK, regarded as a terrorist group by Turkey as well as the European Union and the United States.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011