Reuters: Turkish Warplanes Bomb Iraq

Jan 11, 2008 10:22 PM

Turkish warplanes bombed border villages in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq on Friday morning, Iraqi Kurdish television said.

Kurdistan TV, controlled by supporters of Kurdish regional President Masoud Barzani, gave no details of any injuries or damage to property.

There was no immediate comment from Kurdish government officials and Reuters reporters in southeastern Turkey said they had not seen any warplanes take off from Turkish airbases.

It was the first cross-border air strike since a bomb attack in the Turkish town of Diyarbakir on January 3, which killed six people.

Turkish authorities blamed that attack on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas.

Turkish warplanes repeatedly struck PKK targets in the mountainous north of Iraq in December. Turkey has also massed up to 100,000 troops on the border with Iraq.

Ankara blames the PKK, which is fighting for a separate Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey, for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since it began an armed struggle in 1984.