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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish air force jets bombed several bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and Turkey’s own Kurdish southeast early Sunday, targeting “hideouts and underground ammunition depots,” the official Anadolu Agency reported.
The air raids were the latest since Ankara and the PKK reignited their war in late July, after a two-year hiatus and peace talks that were meant to end a three-decade conflict in which more than 40,000 people have died.
“Nine F-16 fighter jets hit hideouts and underground ammunition depots belonging to the PKK in the mountainous areas of Metina and Qandil as well as in the towns of Sina and Haftanin in northern Iraq,” Anadolu said.
“Two F-4 2020 fighter jets also struck 11 targets in the southeastern province of Hakkari,” it added.
Hundreds of soldiers, Turkish policemen and PKK guerrillas have been reportedly killed in the new round of violence.
Fighting between Turkish and PKK forces resumed following a July 20 bombing in the Turkish-Syrian border town of Suruc in which 32 people were killed and 104 wounded. The PKK later took responsibility for killing two policemen, and Turkey responded with near-daily air raids or artillery attacks.
The PKK said in a report last weekend that its guerrillas had killed at least 500 Turkish soldiers and police over the previous month.
The Turkish government and media have given contradicting numbers on casualties.
Military sources have said that 129 soldiers and policemen were killed during two months of fighting, and that the PKK had lost 337 fighters.
At least 30 civilians are also reported to have been killed, both in Turkey’s Kurdish areas and the Iraqi Kurdistan region, where villagers have reported at least eight deaths.
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