Outlawed PKK says four of its members killed

Agence France-Presse

"Four fighters from the party were killed during the latest attacks by Turkish aircraft which targeted Zab and Zagrus," close to the border, said PKK member Rush Wolat.

The raids took place on March 11, 12 and 13, he told reporters by telephone.

"The Turkish military also launched an offensive against the PKK two days ago and it is continuing, near Cudi and Dersim," (Cudi and Tunceli in Turkish) in eastern Turkey, Wolat added, without elaborating. The Turkish military announced that its warplanes had targeted PKK hideouts in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq on Thursday.

Blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and much of the international community, the PKK took up arms in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.

The Turkish army has been targeting separatist bases in Iraq under a parliamentary authorization for cross-border military action, which was first approved in 2007 and renewed for another year last October.

Meanwhile, soldiers have seized a 90-kilogram (198-pound) bomb in a mountainous region in the Southeast, the Turkish military said Saturday, while blaming separatist Kurdish terrorists. The device, containing C-4 plastic explosives and ammonium nitrate, was discovered in a hideout in Diyarbakır province, along with two automatic rifles and bullets, the statement said.