Turkish army 'kills at least 55' in new airstrikes on Kurdish rebels: report

Ankara

Turkish fighter jets carried out a new barrage of cross-borderairstrikes this week against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, killing at least 55 rebels, state-run Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.

The strikes by F-16 and F-4 jets targeted caves, houses and camps used by the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Anatolia said, citing unnamed security sources.

"At least 55 to 60 terrorists" were killed in the operation, which destroyed munitions depots, the report added.

Turkish security forces and the outlawed PKK have traded fire on a near daily basis since a two-year-old ceasefire fell apart in late July with Ankara's launch of a two-pronged "anti-terror" offensive against Islamic State jihadists in Syria and the jihadists' Kurdish foes.

The bulk of the government's firepower has been reserved forairstrikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq or in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast, to which the rebels have responded with a string of bloody attacks on the security forces.

Around 150 soldiers and police have been killed in PKK bombings and shootings since the return to open conflict, compared with around 1,100 in the rebel camp, according to pro-government media.