(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-26 20:15

ANKARA -- Turkish warplanes on Wednesday struck eight suspected hideouts of the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK)in northern Iraq, said a statement issued by the Turkish General Staff.

Posted on Turkish Gernal Staff's Website, the statement said that the warplanes hit eight caves and other hideouts used by the PKK rebels in an "effective pinpoint operation" after spotting a large terrorist group was preparing to spend the winter in those hideouts.

The airstrike came after a major military operation in northern Iraq on December 16, which killed about 150-175 PKK militants.

In another statement issued on Tuesday, the Turkish General Staff said that Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes at some villages near the border in the Qandil mountains, killing one woman and wounded six other people.

The statement also disclosed a cross-border air operation on December 22, which targeted some other PKK hideouts after a salvo of artillery fires.

The Turkish military has recently launched several cross-border attacks to fight against separatist PKK rebels, who use northern Iraq as a launch pad for attacks against Turkey.

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.