Turkish warplanes bomb northern Iraq

By Sherko Raouf

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Turkish planes bombed an area of Iraq near the border with Turkey on Tuesday to attack Kurdish separatists and the army said it had killed at least 150 guerrillas in its air offensive earlier this month.

A Turkish military source said warplanes launched the limited strike on Tuesday after spotting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas during a reconnaissance flight. He said the strike was smaller than others in recent weeks.

Colonel Hussein Tamar, director of Iraq's border guard command in the northern Kurdish province of Dahuk, said villages near the border were hit but nobody was hurt.

The area was depopulated because residents had fled earlier attacks, he said.

The Turkish military also said it killed five members of the PKK on Tuesday in an attack on the outlawed group within Turkey.

Turkey has repeatedly bombed areas of northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK rebels over the past few weeks. Ground troops have also made occasional cross-border raids, although a large-scale assault is seen as unlikely, especially in winter.

The Turkish general staff said on Tuesday that a strike it had launched on December 16 had killed between 150 and 175 PKK fighters.

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