Turkey in new air strikes against PKK in Iraq: army

Turkish fighter jets carried out a new barrage of air strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight, the army said on Wednesday.

A police officer was also killed by snipers in Turkey’s restive Kurdish-dominated southeast on Wednesday, local security sources said.

The air bombardments “destroyed” targets of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in several northern Iraqi regions including its main stronghold on Qandil mountain, the army said in a statement.

In a separate incident, one policeman was killed after coming under fire from snipers as he was trying to defuse an explosive device in the Sur district of Diyarbakir province, which has been under a military curfew for eight days.

Turkey has been waging a relentless offensive against strongholds of the PKK in the southeast of the country and in northern Iraq since a two-year old truce between the Turkish state and the rebels collapsed in July.

In response the PKK — blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community — has hit back hard, killing dozens of police and soldiers in almost daily bomb and gun attacks.

The violence has destroyed hopes of fresh talks to end a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.