ISTANBUL, (AFP) — Turkish jets have bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, home to members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the army said on Sunday.

“Two groups of targets belonging to the separatist terrorists in the regions of Zap and Kahurk were hit with efficiency in the evening of February 11 by Turkish air force jets,” the general staff said in a statement posted on its website.

The statement said the planes returned to base without incident and did not give any details on possible casualties on the rebel side in the second such raid in eight days.

Fighting between Turkish forces and PKK rebels has escalated in recent months.

In October, Turkey launched a major air and land offensive against the rebels in the southeast of the country and in neighbouring northern Iraq after 24 of its troops were killed in a night-time ambush by rebels.

The PKK took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives. It is labelled a terrorist outfit by Ankara and much of the international community.