TURKEY

TURKISH warplanes bombed 20 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq yesterday in a third day of cross-border strikes.

The aerial offensive was backed with 85 rounds of artillery fire. Turkey launched its latest cross-border offensive last Wednesday, hours after eight soldiers and a village guard were killed in an ambush near the Iraqi border. It came on the heels of escalated attacks by the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, that have killed some 40 soldiers since July.

The Turkish military released footage that it claimed showed attacks on positions – apparently pinpointed with the help of intelligence gathered by unmanned drones – that included a bridge and caves used as ammunition depots on the Iraqi-Iranian border and in the Hakurk area in northeastern Iraq.