Turkey attacks Kurdish rebels in Iraq

Turkey says it has launched air and artillery attacks against Kurdish separatist rebels in northern Iraq after an insurgent strike on a military base.

"Targets proven to belong to the PKK terrorist organisation in northern Iraq were put under heavy and effective fire by our air force planes with the support of artillery," the statement said.

The attacks, which began after 3am Sunday NZT, targeted a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members who had escaped into Iraq from Turkey after a rebel attack on a military headquarters that resulted in the deaths of six soldiers.

Two soldiers were killed in the initial PKK attack on Friday night and four died later in ensuing clashes with the rebels.

The military said on its website that it was trying to find out what casualties it had inflicted on the Kurdistan Workers Party.

A senior Iraqi border security official said there was one air strike and artillery shelling of the border area in northern Iraq overnight. There were no casualties in the attacks that occurred around 0800 NZT on Saturday, he said.

The violence was part of a wider military operation, backed by attack helicopters, tanks and artillery, against the PKK in restive and mountainous southeast Turkey.

Amid widespread public anger over PKK attacks, Turkey has sent tens of thousands of troops to the border region. Over the past week dozens of Turkish F-16 warplanes have launched bombing raids against suspected PKK positions deep inside northern Iraq.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of 40,000 people since 1984, when the group took up arms to fight for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey. Ankara, like the European Union and the United States, considers the group a terrorist organisation.