More than 150 Kurdish fighters have been killed in a series of cross-border air raids by Turkey into northern Iraq, the country's military has said.

But a spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said that only six fighters from a breakaway faction were killed in Friday's raids on Mount Qandil in Iraq.

The latest raids, which began on Thursday, mark the Turkish military's deepest operation inside Iraq against the PKK.

"According to initial assessments, more than 150 terrorists were rendered inefficient [killed] and the operation led to panic among the members of the terrorist organization," a Turkish military statement released on Saturday said.

It said that 43 targets, including shelters and a PKK communications centre, were destroyed.

'Psychological warfare'

Ahmed Danis, a PKK spokesman told the AFP news agency: "The Turkish government is indulging in psychological warfare against the people of Kurdistan and PKK."

"The Turkish media is exaggerating the number of attacks and the number of people killed and wounded."

An official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, which is headed by Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, said villagers had told him that four PKK fighters were killed in the Turkish operation.

The Turkish military has launched several air raids on PKK bases in northern Iraq in recent months.

In February, Turkish troops crossed into Iraqi territory, conducting an eight-day operation to destroy PKK targets.

Clashes between PKK fighters and Turkish troops have sporadically continued along Turkey's border with Iraq.

Self-determination

The Kurdish party took up arms in 1984 in an effort to secure Kurdish self-determination.

Tens of thousands of people have since been killed in fighting.

The group holds bases in the north of Iraq, which it uses as a launch pad for attacks against targets inside Turkey.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party leadership is believed to be hiding in the Qandil region, about 100 km from the Turkish border.

Turkey, like the US and the European Union, lists the PKK as a terrorist organization.

PHOTO CAPTION

Map of Iraq locates Mount Qandil where the Turkish military carried out air raids against the Kurdish forces.

Al-Jazeera