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ANKARA : Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday threatened to launch a fresh incursion into northern Iraq as warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets across the border after a deadly attack killed 17 troops.
Describing Turkey's position as one of self-defence, Erdogan said his government was determined to crush the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), using all available means, including a possible cross-frontier operation.
Such an operation will be carried out "if need be, at the right time and under the right conditions with a view of obtaining the right result," Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling party.
"The sole target of a possible cross-border operation will be the terrorist organisation," he added, referring to the PKK which is blacklisted by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
An incursion will not target either Iraqi civilians or Iraq's unity and integrity, he added.
Erdogan was speaking a day before parliament is to vote on extending by one-year the government's mandate to order cross-border strikes against PKK rebels who attack Turkish territory from Iraq's autonomous north.
Turkey has long accused Iraqi Kurds of tolerating the PKK presence on their territory and Erdogan issued a fresh warning for them to side with Turkey.
"The best choice for the regional administration of northern Iraq is to cooperate with us against terrorist elements because the terrorist organisation is a cause of regional unrest and tension," Erdogan said.
"It is inevitable for those who cannot put a barrier between themselves and terrorism to be adversely affected by the struggle against terrorism," he added.
Iraqi authorities have repeatedly pledged to curb the PKK, but say the group takes refuge in mountainous regions to which access is difficult.
Earlier Tuesday, the Turkish army announced that warplanes bombed 21 PKK targets in the Avashin-Basyan region in northern Iraq and the Buzul and Iki Yaka mountains near the border in Turkey's southeast.
"The planes returned safely to base after successfully completing their mission," it said, without further details.
The raid was the fourth strike against PKK hideouts inside Iraq since Friday's attack on a military outpost, located in a deep valley surrounded by rugged mountains in the border province of Hakkari.
The army has said most of its casualties were caused by heavy weapons' fire from northern Iraq as the rebels attempted to take out soldiers stationed on the mountains to ensure the outpost's security.
Twenty-three militants were killed in the ensuing clash that lasted late into Friday night, but the army said it believes the rebels suffered more losses in artillery fire and air strikes following the fighting.
The PKK, on the other hand, claimed that it had killed 62 soldiers and wounded more than 30 while losing only nine rebels.
The casualty numbers are difficult to confirm independently.
Using intelligence passed on by NATO ally United States, the army has staged several air strikes and a week-long ground incursion against PKK targets under a one-year parliamentary authorisation that expires on October 17.
Although the army has described the strikes as successful, it has also called for economic and social measures in Turkey's impoverished Kurdish-majority southeast to erode popular support for the group.
Turkey's civilian and military leaders are expected to meet on Thursday to discuss fresh measures to curb the militants.
The talks are expected to focus on five legal amendments requested by the army and the police to beef up the struggle against the PKK, among them extensive stop-and-search powers and the extension of detention periods.
The PKK took up arms for self-rule in southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives. - AFP/ms
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