Kurd rebels say no casualties in Turkish air raids

The rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said on Sunday that it sustained no casualties in Turkish air strikes on border areas of northern Iraq.

"Turkish warplanes bombed the Zab and Khowakirk areas beginning at 9:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Saturday and lasting for a period of one hour," PKK spokesman Bakhtiar Dogan told AFP by telephone.

Dogan said the air strikes caused damage to "farms and a number of villages" but no PKK casualties. He mentioned no civilian casualties either.

The Turkish military said on Sunday that its jets had carried out strikes on Saturday against suspected PKK hideouts in northern Iraq.

The rebel group took up arms for self-rule in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.

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