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4 PKK militants killed in Turkey air raids

22 May 2010 20:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Four militants have been killed in recent Turkish airstrikes on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq, APA reports quoting presstv.ir website.

"Four fighters were killed and five wounded in large-scale Turkish air raids on Thursday," Ahmed Denis, a spokesman for the PKK, was quoted by AFP as saying.

About 20 fighter jets attacked PKK hideouts in the Zap-Khakurk region in northern Iraq.

The Turkish army launched the attack after being tipped off about a potential invasion by the PKK militants hiding in the region.

The Iraqi region’s Kurdish authorities condemned the attack as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

"We call for the military operations to stop immediately and we call on them (PKK and Ankara) to settle their differences through dialogue, to find a solution because the use of violence... will not bring a solution," they said.

Turkey’s parliament authorized the army in 2007 to carry out cross-border military action against the PKK in Iraq, and later extended it by another year.

The move, however, was met with opposition from Iraqi authorities, who said the attacks would undermine the country’s sovereignty.

Ankara says about 2,000 PKK militants are hiding in Iraq’s mountainous north, from where they launch attacks on Turkish territory.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community, including Turkey, Iran, the US and European Union member states.

More than 40,000 people have lost their lives since the militant group launched its armed campaign against Ankara in 1984, as part of a quest to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.