Turkey bombs PKK bases in north Iraq

Turkish warplanes have again bombed suspected rear bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist group in northern Iraq, a rebel spokesman said on Monday. The bombing began late on Sunday and continued for about one hour, and Turkish artillery also fired across the border into Iraq, Dozdar Hammo told AFP. "Yesterday at about 10:00 pm (1900 GMT), there was an air attack against two places -- Khowakirk and Khaniran -- for about one hour," Hammo said. "There were no victims." "Also yesterday, at about 6:00 pm, there were artillery attacks against another area, Haft Tanine, also without victims." Turkish warplanes most recently bombed suspected PKK bases in the northern Iraqi Kurdistan region on Thursday evening. Earlier this month, Ankara threatened to launch a ground incursion into the Iraqi Kurdish region. On Thursday, a radical Kurdish group that Turkey says is a PKK front claimed responsibility for a bomb attack two days earlier that killed three people in the centre of Ankara. The PKK says the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons is a splinter group outside its control. Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey have recently escalated their attacks on Turkish targets. Three security officials were killed in two separate attacks in east and southeast Turkey, on Wednesday and Thursday. The Turkish air force has bombed suspected PKK targets repeatedly since August 17. The PKK took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.