Warplanes hit PKK targets in northern Iraq

Dozens of Turkish warplanes struck militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, targets in northern Iraq overnight on Monday, killing dozens of the group's fighters, a security source said on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, Kurdish militants killed 14 police officers in a bomb attack on a minibus in a Turkish province bordering Armenia and Iran, a government official said.

Two government officials said more than 40 jets took part in the Monday strikes, which came after the PKK killed 16 Turkish soldiers in southeast Turkey on Sunday in their deadliest attack since the collapse of a two-year cease-fire in July.

The clashes, weeks before elections that the ruling AK Party hopes will restore its majority, have left in tatters a peace process that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched in 2012 in an attempt to end a three-decade insurgency that has killed more than 40,000.

The security source said F-16 and F-4 jets took part in the air operation, which began at about 10 pm on Monday and continued for six hours, hitting areas around the PKK's bases in Qandil, Basyan Avashin and Zap.

There was no immediate confirmation of the strikes from the Turkish general staff, which the source said hit weapons and food stores as well as PKK gun positions.

PKK militants launched the bomb attack in the eastern Turkish province of Igdir on Tuesday morning, security officials told Dogan.

The conflict with the PKK has complicated Turkey's role in the fight against Islamic State. A Kurdish militia allied with the PKK has been battling Islamic State in northern Syria.

Reuters - Xinhua

(China Daily 09/09/2015 page10)