At least 25 Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels have been killed in a cross-border air raid targeting rebel positions in northern Iraq last week, claimed Turkey's military on Friday.
Military spokesman General Metin Gurak told reporters that army received "corroborating reports from various intelligence sources that 25 terrorists were neutralized in the October 17 air raid."
He said that the air raid also injured many other rebels and added that a further 17 PKK rebels were killed in security operations inside Turkey in the past week.
The tensions in the region escalated after PKK rebels, based in northern Iraq, carried out a cross border attack on a border outpost in southeastern Turkey in October, killing 15 soldiers and injuring 20 others.
Since then, Turkey has launched several cross-border air raids on PKK targets in northern Iraq, and recently the Turkish Parliament extended the government's mandate to order cross-border military strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq by a year.
The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by most of the international community including the United States and the EU, has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey for more than two decades. It is estimated that at least 37,000 people have died in the violence.
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