Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq    

    ANKARA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish General Staff has sent a large group of troops to the region bordering Iraq to fight against the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) on Tuesday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    The report said the General Staff sent the Turkish troops to Besta region and Cudi and Gabar mountainous areas in Sirnak province along the neighboring country early Tuesday.

    Last Thursday, Turkish jets launched an air strike against 16 PKK targets in the north of Iraq.

    The Turkish military has periodically bombed and shelled suspected PKK positions in Turkish-Iraqi border area during the past few months after it launched an eight-day ground incursion into Iraq in February.

    The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.