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Turkish Jets Strike PKK Targets in Northern Iraq, Southeast Turkey | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters. Reuters


Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey overnight on Wednesday and authorities carried out further curfews in rural areas by the time the army and police continue to battle insurgents, security sources said.

Noting that, these new curfews show a shift to rural areas away from cities, where much of the fighting since a ceasefire collapsed last July has taken place.

The fighting came a day after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said operations in the mainly Kurdish southeast were over, obviously referring to the months-long clashes in some urban centers, and added the government would focus on reconstruction.

The air strikes in Kurdish-run northern Iraq led to the destruction of targets that belong to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), including but not limited to shelters and weapon stores.

The jets also targeted sites near the Turkish towns of Lice, northeast of the regional capital of Diyarbakir, and Semdinli, further east near the Iraqi border, sources said.

The three-decade conflict with the PKK reignited last year after a two-year ceasefire collapsed, and fighting has been at its most intense since the peak of the insurgency in the 1990s.

On Wednesday, new curfews were imposed in villages in Mus and Bingol provinces and near the town of Beytussebap, where three police officers were hurt in a gunfight, security sources said.