Turkish army says it strikes PKK in Northern Iraq

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes fired on a group of Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq on Tuesday as they tried to enter Turkey, the General Staff said on Wednesday.

The General Staff said in a statement the warplanes had "neutralised", generally meaning killed, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels in the Avasin-Basyan region of northern Iraq.

PKK spokesman Ahmet Danees, who is based in northern Iraq, said Turkish forces had bombed for an hour in the Zagros mountains, but that there were no casualties among the PKK.

It was not possible to independently verify the reports.

Ankara says thousands of separatist PKK rebels use a remote, mountainous part of northern Iraq as a base from which to stage attacks on targets inside Turkey.

Turkey staged an eight-day ground incursion against the PKK in February, sending thousands of troops backed by tanks, attack helicopters and jets into Iraq. The military said 240 rebels were killed in the campaign, along with 27 of its own men.

That operation prompted concern in Washington about further regional instability and was watched closely in Turkey's financial markets.

"SECURITY BOOSTED"

"Our target is terrorism and only terrorism, and the operations were 100 percent successful," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told Al Jazeera television.

"The operations have greatly boosted Turkey's security because the party was planning attacks inside Turkey, so we secured the borders," he said.

It was not clear when the interview was recorded and whether he was specifically referring to Tuesday's attack.

Turkish warplanes and artillery have periodically bombed and shelled PKK positions in northern Iraq over several months, helped by intelligence provided by the United States.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, since the group began its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

Turkey, like the European Union and the United States, considers the PKK a terrorist organization.

Turkish authorities usually step up their operations against the PKK in spring to prevent rebels crossing into Turkey when weather conditions improve.

The General Staff said operations were also continuing in southeast Turkey, with two separate clashes on April 15. It said one rebel had been killed.

Various weapons and equipment used in making explosives were seized during those clashes, the statement said.

Erdogan pledged last month that his government would invest up to $12 billion in southeast Turkey over a five-year period in an effort to drain support for the PKK. The government has pledged to allow a state television channel to broadcast in the Kurdish language.

The EU, which Turkey hopes to join, has long urged Ankara to remove restrictions on the Kurdish language and culture.

(Additional reporting by Sherko Raouf in Sulaimaniya, Ola Galal in Dubai, Daren Butler in Istanbul; Editing by Kevin Liffey)