Turkey bombed PKK rebels at Iraqi border -sources

TUNCELI, Turkey, Aug 25 (Reuters) Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish guerrilla positions in the Iraqi border region earlier this week, military sources said today.

Several thousand members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are believed to be hiding in the mountains of mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, from where they slip across the border to attack Turkish police, troops and other targets.

Turkey has repeatedly warned it has the right under international law to conduct cross-border operations if Iraq and the United States fail to crack down on the PKK rebels.

Military sources in southeast Turkey told Reuters two or three warplanes had bombed the Iraqi border region on Wednesday evening after PKK forces were identified in the area.

The sources, who declined to be named, said the action was not significant and it was not clear what damage the bombing had caused. The PKK has not reported any casualties.

The bombing occurred along the borders of Hakkari and Sirnak provinces and it was not clear if any of the bombs actually landed in Iraqi territory, the sources said.

A Foreign Ministry official declined to confirm the information, which comes after Turkish media reported F-16 aircraft had attacked PKK positions inside Iraq.

President George W Bush told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last month the United States wanted to deal more aggressively with cross-border attacks by PKK rebels.

Diplomats in Ankara say the government and the armed forces are frustrated at little action on the ground despite mounting soldiers' casualties in Turkey.

Turkey blames the PKK for more than 30,000 deaths since the start of its campaign for a Kurdish homeland in 1984.

The United States, Turkey and the European Union, view the PKK as a terrorist organisation but says broader security problems in Iraq prevent a full-scale military crackdown on the group demanded by Ankara.

Armed clashes have intensified since April, when the Turkish military sent tens of thousands of extra troops to the southeast to reinforce more than 200,000 soldiers already stationed there.

REUTERS MS MIR RAI2158