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Turkish jets have bombed a Kurdish fighters' hideout in Iraq where commanders were believed to be present, the Turkish military says.
It said in a statement that Sunday evening's raids targeted a hideout in the mountainous Zap region, a major PKK stronghold, where "a PKK group which included high-level members" was determined to be.
The military did not specify any casualties from the raid.
It was the seventh Turkish air strike in northern Iraq since October 3 when PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) fighters crossing from their bases in the region attacked a Turkish border outpost, killing 17 soldiers.
Turkish officials estimate about 2,000 PKK fighters are holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, where they allegedly enjoy free movement and obtain weapons and explosives for attacks in Turkey.
Ankara has often accused Iraqi Kurds, who run the autonomous region, of tolerating and even aiding the rebels, but Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, said on Saturday that the government would pursue dialogue with Iraqi Kurds to resolve the problem.
Mandate extended
The Turkish parliament on Wednesday extended by one year the government's mandate to order cross-border military operations in northern Iraq against the PKK, which has long enjoyed safe haven in the region.
Just as the legislators voted, a police bus was machine-gunned in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the predominately Kurdish southeast, claiming five lives.
The PKK claimed responsibility on Sunday for the attack, saying in a statement on its website that it was a "successful action" by its fighters.
The police have detained nine people in connection with the incident, among them three alleged PKK members believed to have taken part in the attack.
'Attack foiled'
Separately, officials said a probable suicide attack was foiled on Saturday after the police arrested an alleged Kurdish fighter carrying explosives in downtown Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.
The suspect - a woman in her 30s who was faking pregnancy - carried 8.8kg of explosives and detonators.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.
PHOTO CAPTION
A PKK guerrilla fighter walks into a stone hut in a camp located along the Iraq-Iran border in the mountains of northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, in 2006.
Al-Jazeera
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