Turkey stages new air attack on Kurd rebels in Iraq

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ANKARA, Dec 23 (AFP): Turkey's military said it attacked Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq Saturday for the third time in less than a week, bombing and shelling positions and warning more will follow.
"Turkish aircraft attacked between 1:35 pm and 2:00 pm (1125- 1200 GMT) major positions of the terrorist organisation" PKK, before Turkish artillery shelled the area for 15 minutes, the military said in a statement on its website.
It gave no details on targets, saying more information would be given next week and that it would carry out more operations despite harsh winter conditions in the mountainous region.
The Turkish television channel NTV said the raids were in the Amadiyah area of northern Iraq.
"It will become well understood how effective the operations against the terrorist operations are," the military's statement said. The PKK "no longer has a chance of success" against the Turkish army.
Actions over recent weeks had left "hundreds of terrorists" dead, it added.
In northern Iraq, Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga security force, said Turkish warplanes had hit isolated Kurdish villages.
"In the afternoon Turkish warplanes entered northern Iraqi airspace in an area called Al-Amadiyah. Later at around 4:00 pm they bombed Iraqi Kurdish villages. We do not know the extent of damage. But these areas are largely deserted and are along the border with Turkey," Yawar told AFP.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and many other countries, has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Turkey has been stepping up pressure since its parliament approved in October cross-border raids on PKK bases, with Ankara saying the Iraqi government and its US backers were not doing enough to halt PKK attacks.