Turkish military says hit PKK target in north Iraq

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes struck a Kurdish guerrilla target in northern Iraq on Saturday night, the military said in a statement on its website.

The General Staff said the air operation was carried out at 3:30 p.m. EDT in northern Iraq's Zap region across the border, and did not give details other than its warplanes hit the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) target "effectively".

An Iraqi border guard official, who declined to be named, said he received no reports of casualties from the Turkish attack.

The Turkish military has this year regularly attacked PKK rebel positions in the mountains of northern Iraq, where several thousand militants are believed to be holed up.

The military launched a major ground offensive across the border in February, signaling a new phase in the conflict, but later withdrew its troops amid protests from Baghdad.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 with the aim of establishing an ethnic homeland in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

The European Union and the United States are keen for NATO-member Turkey, which they say is defending itself against a terrorist organization, to keep its attacks in northern Iraq limited to avoid destabilizing Iraq and the wider region.

The EU and the U.S. classify PKK as a terrorist organization.

(Reporting by Selcuk Gokoluk; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)