"Turkish aircraft heavily attacked some 70 targets from 3:00 am," a statement on the armed forces website said, adding that the operations had terminated at 3:15 pm (1515 GMT).

The statement gave no further details of the latest attacks on bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) just across the Iraqi border from southeastern Turkey.

Earlier rebel and Iraqi military officials said Turkish planes had attacked three Kurdish settlements in a mountainous area of northern Iraq known as a refuge for rebel Kurds.

Major General Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for the peshmerga, the armed force of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, said there were no reports of victims.

A spokesman for the Kurdish rebels also confirmed the attack.

Ahmed Dinis of the PKK said the hamlets were deserted and no one was hurt. He would not say whether any guerrillas were in the area when the jets struck.

Turkey has carried out several air strikes in northern Iraq since December, some using intelligence supplied by the US forces in the country, and has vowed to defeat what it says are 4,000 rebels using the Qandil region as a rear base.

The PKK, which is regarded as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish military since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

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