The rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said on Sunday that it sustained no casualties in Turkish air strikes on border areas of northern Iraq.

"Turkish warplanes bombed the Zab and Khowakirk areas beginning at 9:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Saturday and lasting for a period of one hour," PKK spokesman Bakhtiar Dogan told AFP by telephone.

Dogan said the air strikes caused damage to "farms and a number of villages" but no PKK casualties. He mentioned no civilian casualties either.

The Turkish military said on Sunday that its jets had carried out strikes on Saturday against suspected PKK hideouts in northern Iraq.

The rebel group took up arms for self-rule in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.

Turkish jets bomb Kurdish rebel bases in north Iraq
Istanbul (AFP) Feb 12, 2012 - 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.