Four combatants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) died in three days of Turkish air raids in northern Iraq last week, a PKK official said on Sunday. "Four fighters from the party were killed during the latest attacks by Turkish aircraft which targeted Zab and Zagrus," close to the border, said PKK foreign relations committee member Rush Wolat.
The raids took place on March 11, 12 and 13, he told reporters by telephone. "The Turkish military also launched an offensive against the PKK two days ago and it is continuing, near Judi and Dersim," (Cudi and Tunceli in Turkish) in eastern Turkey, Wolat added, without elaborating.
The Turkish military announced that its warplanes had targeted PKK hideouts in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq on Thursday. Blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and much of the international community, the PKK took up arms for self-rule in Turkeys mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.
The Turkish army has been targeting rebel bases in Iraq under a parliamentary authorisation for cross-border military action, which was first approved in 2007 and renewed for another year in October. The Turkish military said on Friday that 375 PKK rebels had been killed or wounded by air strikes or artillery fire since October.