It was the third bombing raid against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in Kurdish-run northern Iraq that the military here has confirmed since December 16, in addition to a ground cross-border operation.

The raid followed intelligence that "a large group of terrorists, who have been watched for a long time, are preparing to pass the winter in eight caves and hideouts in the Zap region", the general staff said in a statement.

"Our warplanes hit the targets in an effective air raid that started in the morning hours of December 26," it said.

The statement did not mention casualties.

An Iraqi Kurdish official said the strike targeted deserted villages along the border.

"The planes targeted deserted villages but we do not know the extent of damages," said Jabbar Yawar, spokesman of the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga security force.

Another local security official said Turkish aircraft struck an area called Nirvorokan in Dohuk province at around 8:30 am (0530 GMT), while a news agency close to the PKK reported that some 10 warplanes took part in the raid.

Officials in northern Iraq have reported two other air strikes that the Turkish military has not confirmed, including a brief one on Tuesday.

Faced with mounting PKK violence and exasperated by the safe haven the rebels enjoy in northern Iraq, the Turkish government secured in October a one-year parliamentary authorisation for cross-border military action.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

An estimated 3,500 PKK militants have taken refuge in northern Iraq, using camps there as a springboard for attacks across the border.

At least 150 rebels were killed on December 16 in the largest air strike in northern Iraq so far, when fighter jets bombed positions along the Turkish border and in the Qandil mountains to the east, where the PKK is known to have camps, the military said Tuesday.

The strike, it said, destroyed more than 200 PKK targets, including command, training and logistical bases as well as anti-aircraft defence positions and ammunition depots.

The Turkish cross-border operations are aided by US intelligence.

Following talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in November, US President George W. Bush called the PKK a common enemy and promised "real-time" intelligence on rebel movement.

The pledge was seen as a US approval of limited Turkish military action in northern Iraq to head off the threat of a large-scale incursion that may destabilise a relatively quiet region in Iraq and fuel tensions between two US allies -- the Iraqi Kurds and NATO member Turkey.

Ankara has accused Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and even aiding the PKK.

The Pentagon said last week a coordination centre was set up in Ankara where Turkish and US military officials are working to share intelligence.

"We continue to be concerned by any potential loss of innocent lives during these military operations and the potential impact it could have on Iraq in terms of having a destabilizing influence but ... we all have concerns by the terrorist threat posed by the PKK," spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

Iraqi officials have condemned the Turkish strikes as a violation of the country's sovereignty.

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