Iraq Kurds say no one hurt in Turkish bombing

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes which struck Iraq on Saturday hit an area that has already largely been evacuated, causing no casualties, Iraqi Kurdish security forces said.

"The aerial bombardment didn't result in any people killed because the area is almost deserted because of fear of aerial and mortar attacks from the Turkish side," Jabbar Yawer, spokesman for Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga security forces, said.

Yawer said the Turkish warplanes had struck a mountainous area about 4 km (2.5 miles) inside Iraqi territory, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of the town of Dahuk.

Turkey's military said its warplanes had bombed positions of separatist PKK rebels inside Iraq, and that cross border strikes would continue.

Turkey has carried out occasional air and artillery strikes and small-scale raids by ground forces across the border over the past three months. Last week, Iraq complained that Turkish air strikes had killed a civilian woman in northern Iraq. (Reporting by Sherko Raouf; writing by Peter Graff in Baghdad)