Turkish fighter planes were reported to have launched a new strike against Kurdish rebels based in the mountainous border area of northern Iraq, police sources from the northern Iraqi town of Duhuk said Sunday, according to dpa. The strikes occurred a day earlier, according to reports. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses from the northern area claimed that Turkish planes have been undertaking surveillance operations in the Jabal Qandil area since noon Sunday. According to the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency, Saturday's strikes hit an uninhabited area only eight kilometres away from the Turkish-Iraqi border. No loss of life was reported in the aerial bombardment. A Turkish military statement, cited by the British broadcaster BBC, had said that the "Turkish Air Force warplanes struck important targets of the PKK/KONGRA-GEL terror group in northern Iraq... between the hours of 14:25-15:00 (1225-1300 GMT). "The (Kurdistan's Worker Party) PKK will understand through experience that northern Iraq is not a safe place and they will understand once again that they have no chance against the Turkish military," the statement added. On December 16, the Turkish artillery bombed several villages in the area known as Jabal Qandil in the northern Kurdish region, killing at least one person. Turkish forces then began an incursion into the northern area of Iraq on Tuesday in hot pursuit of Kurdish rebels belonging to the PKK, which has attacked southern Turkey from bases across the border. Official sources from the Kurdish government said that at least 2,000 people have left their homes in the north during the past week in fear of more Turkish strikes. Regional President Masoud Barzani promised the families monetary compensation, saying "their suffering will not be for long." Civil charity organizations have been raising aid for the families affected by the bombings. Barzan Qader, an activist and head of an aid organisation, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Sunday that "children, women and elderly people have become homeless (as a result of the strikes) in a time of freezing cold weather and snow."
