Turkish warplanes bombed separatist Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq early yesterday, Turkey's military said in a statement posted on its Web site.
One woman was killed in the airstrikes, a local official in Iraq said.
It was the first confirmed operation with fighter jets against rebel targets across the border since the invasion of Iraq, although Turkey has hit Iraqi territory with ground-based artillery and with helicopters.
The US and Iraq have urged Turkey to avoid a major operation against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq, fearing such an operation would destabilize what has been the most stable region in the country.
The attack follows a promise last month by the US to share intelligence about the rebels with Turkey.
The warplanes bombed targets of the PKK in regions close to the border with Turkey as well as in the Qandil mountain chain, which is further away from the frontier, the military's statement said. All planes returned to their bases safely, it said.
After the planes left the operation zone, the army continued firing on the targets with long-range weapons, the military said. Artillery units could be seen firing shells toward Iraq in the early hours yesterday from the town of Cukurca -- where the borders of Turkey, Iran and Iraq meet -- private Dogan news agency footage showed.
Earlier this month, the military said it fired on a group of about 50 to 60 PKK guerrillas inside Iraqi territory, inflicting "significant losses."
Abdullah Ibrahim, a top local official in the Iraqi administrative center of Sangasar, said Turkish warplanes bombarded 10 Kurdish villages, killing one woman and injuring two others.
Ibrahim acknowledged that there were Kurdish rebel bases in the area, about 170km from the Turkish border, but said they were far from the villages that were hit.
"The villagers are now scared and are hiding in nearby caves. They lost all their properties," Ibrahim said.
An Iraqi army officer with the border guard said the attack was on three villages in Iraq's Qandil mountains, where Turkish and Iranian Kurdish rebels are based.
The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Villages are scattered in the Qandil mountains, some as far as an hour's drive apart over steep roads and paths.
Private NTV television claimed that one of the targets hit was a PKK "command center" in northern Iraq.
PKK "targets in the regions of Zap, Avasin and Hakourk located in Iraq's north, and deep in the Qandil mountains ... were hit through a large-scope aerial operation of the Turkish Air Force," the military said.
It said the air strikes began at 1am local time and the planes returned at 4:15am.
Turkish news reports said the planes had taken off from an air base in Diyarbakir, in southeast Turkey.
The military, in its statement, vowed to press ahead with operations against the PKK "according to military needs with determination."
It said the operation was directed against the PKK and not against the local population in northern Iraq.
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