ANKARA, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkish General Staff said that Turkish jets hit targets of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in an airstrike conducted in the north of Iraq on Tuesday.

    The Turkish warplanes hit the PKK targets in Hakurk, Avasin-Basyan and Zap regions, the General Staff said in a statement published on its website.

    The statement said Turkish jets returned to their bases safely after the strike, adding that only the PKK hideouts were targeted and utmost attention was paid not to harm civilians during the operation.

    On Oct. 3, 17 Turkish soldiers were killed when PKK militants based in northern Iraq attacked Aktutun Gendarmerie Border Unit in Semdinli town in the province of Hakkari. About 23 PKK militants were killed in the clashes.

    The tension is mounting after the deadliest attack in the year and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the military have pledged to intensify a campaign to crush the PKK, which was blacklisted by Ankara and the United States as a terrorist group.

    The Turkish forces take tougher actions against the PKK after the country's legislature extended on Oct. 8 the government's mandate to launch cross-border operations against the rebels in northern Iraq.

    Thirty-five rebels were killed on Oct. 14, when government troops attacked a group of PKK militants who were allegedly trying to infiltrate into Turkey from northern Iraq.

    The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.