Turkey hits PKK targets in N.Iraq again after ambush

By Ibon Villelabeitia

ANKARA (Reuters) - The Turkish military stepped up an aerial bombing campaign against suspected Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and in Turkey on Monday after at least 15 Turkish soldiers were killed in a cross-border attack on Friday.

Public anger is mounting after the attack -- the deadliest against the military in a year -- and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the powerful military have pledged to intensify a campaign to crush the outlawed PKK.

The incident has strained ties between Iraq and Turkey, which accuses its neighbour of not doing enough to combat rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) based in mountainous northern Iraq. Two soldiers were wounded in Friday's attack, in which the rebels used heavy weapons, and two were missing.

"The military continues to follow terrorist members who took part in the Oct. 3 attack," the General Staff said in a statement, announcing the third such aerial attack on rebel bases in northern Iraq since the PKK ambush.

"Our warplanes achieved their mission and came back to base safely," the statement said.

It said the raid targeted a group of PKK militants holed up in the Avasin Basyan region. There was no indication of whether the raids had caused casualties or what damage had been caused.

Later on Monday the military said in a statement it had also carried out air strikes against a group of rebels sighted in the Bozul mountains in southeastern Hakkari province, near Iraq.

NATO member Turkey has attacked PKK bases in northern Iraq several times over the past 12 months but has confined itself to shelling and air strikes since a brief large-scale land offensive in February.