ANKARA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Turkish fighter jets bombed targets of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq on Tuesday, private Dogan news agency reported.
Eight Turkish F-16 jets took off from Diyarbakir airbase in southeastern Turkey at around 11:00 a.m. local time (0800 GMT), and struck the PKK targets in Qandil, Zap and Basyan regions in Iraq over initial intelligence gathered by unarmed aerial observation flights.
Turkish military determined that PKK members had tried to flee the regions, which were once bombed by Turkish jets.
The air operation took two hours, during which several hideouts, training bases and antiaircraft weapons were destroyed, the report said.
The Turkish jets have safely returned to their bases after completing the mission, according to the report.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the united States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then, over 35,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group.
|
