Turkey carries out new PKK raids

Turkey said all its planes returned safely to base after the mission

Turkish warplanes have bombed suspected Kurdish rebel targets both inside the country and across the border in northern Iraq, the military says.

The jets hit 21 targets in Iraq's Avasin Baysan area and two mountainous regions in south-eastern Turkey.

The military did not say whether the raids had caused any casualties.

It was the fourth strike against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in response to the killing of 17 Turkish soldiers last week.

The military raised the death toll to 17 on Monday, from 15, after recovering the bodies of two more soldiers.

Friday's ambush near Turkey's south-eastern town of Semdinli was the deadliest attack attributed to the PKK this year.

The Turkish military said it fought back killing 23 rebels.

The PKK has disputed the figures.

Ankara blames the PKK for a series of bomb attacks on its cities, and often targets the rebels, based in Kurdish northern Iraq, with air strikes.

More than 40,000 people are thought to have been killed since 1984, when the PKK launched its campaign for a Kurdish homeland in south-eastern Turkey.

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