Turkish warplanes strike PKK targets in northern Iraq

DIYARBAKIR: Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq overnight, a security source told Reuters on Friday, the latest in a series of daily air strikes on the militants as conflict surges in southeast Turkey.

Hundreds of militants and security force members have died since the PKK and the Turkish state resumed hostilities after the collapse of a ceasefire in July, shattering a peace process launched in 2012 to end a three-decades-old conflict.

More than 15 warplanes struck sites where the PKK are located at Qandil, Zap and Avashin in the mountains of northern Iraq in attacks launched shortly before midnight that continued until 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), the source said.

In Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast, suspected PKK militants opened fire on a restaurant frequented by police in the main commercial district on Friday morning, wounding three police officers and one civilian, security sources said. One of the officers was seriously hurt.

Further south, a round-the-clock curfew in the town of Cizre entered its eighth day. Pro-Kurdish politicians say 21 civilians have been killed and a humanitarian crisis has unfolded since authorities imposed the curfew to combat PKK fighters. The interior minister said dozens of militants have been killed and only one civilian has died.

The PKK, designated a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the European Union and United States launched its separatist insurgency in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.