The strike on Thursday targeted hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Zap-Avashin region of the Kurdish-held autonomous north of Iraq, General Metin Gurak told reporters, according to Anatolia.

He gave no indication of possible losses to the rebels, but underlined that measures were taken to prevent harming the civilian population in the region.

In Iraq, a PKK spokesman said they suffered no casualties in the raid that targeted the Jamjo area in Zagrus on the Iraqi-Turkish border between 11:00 am (0900 GMT) and 12:00 pm (1000 GMT).

The area "belongs to the PKK and there are no casualties", Ahmed Denis said from his base in the Qandil mountains.

The PKK, blacklisted as a "terrorist" organisation by Ankara and much of the international community, picked up arms for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.

The Turkish army has been targeting rebel bases in Iraq under a parliamentary authorisation for cross-border military action, which was first approved in 2007 and renewed for another year in October.

Last week, the army said about 375 PKK rebels were either killed or wounded in Turkish air strikes or artillery fire since October. It did not give a breakdown of the dead and wounded.

Ankara says about 2,000 PKK rebels are holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, from where they launch attacks on Turkish territory.

In November, Iraq, Turkey and the United States formed a joint committee to track the threat posed by the PKK and enact measures to curb the militants.

burs-han/ms/gk

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