Turkish army says kills more than 150 PKK rebels

ANKARA - The Turkish army killed more than 150 Kurdish PKK rebels in northern Iraq in air strikes carried out on Thursday and Friday, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement on its website on Saturday.
It said it destroyed all the targeted PKK posts in Qandil area in the operation. Senior PKK members might be among the killed, it added.
"It was detected that more than 150 terrorists were left ineffective and the operation caused a big panic among the terror organisation's members," the statement said. The Turkish army uses the term "ineffective" to mean killed.
Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Thursday and Friday. The army has stepped up its strikes against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq in recent weeks in addition to operations in Turkey.
Turkish troops conducted a large-scale incursion across the border in February.
A rebel spokesman said on Friday that Turkish warplanes struck targets in northern Iraq overnight but there were no reports of any casualties.
Military sources told Reuters at least 30 warplanes were involved in the raids, which they said targeted senior PKK members in Iraq's remote, mountainous Qandil area.
The PKK uses northern Iraq as a base to stage attacks on Turkish territory. Turkey blames the PKK, which is fighting for an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey, for the deaths of more than 40,000 people.
The United States and the European Union consider the PKK a terrorist organisation.
The February incursion, during which the army said it killed 240 guerrillas and lost 27 of its own men, lasted eight days.
Baghdad government protested earlier Turkish airstrikes in northern Iraq.