Ankara - The Turkish Air Force continued bombing raids on suspected Kurdish separatist positions in northern Iraq carrying out on Friday night their sixth attack in a week, the General Staff announced on Saturday.

According to a short statement posted its official website, the General Staff said 31 targets just over the Turkish border were hit during the raids on Friday night during the bombing raids.

The statement said the only aim of the raids were Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) targets and that precautions were taken not to harm civilians in the Hakurk region.

The attacks are the sixth since a PKK attack on a military border post last week left 17 soldiers and 23 PKK separatists dead.

The PKK uses mountainous northern Iraq as a base from which to launch attacks inside Turkey.

On Wednesday the Turkish parliament extended by one-year a mandate for the Turkish military to launch raids into northern Iraq whenever it deemed necessary.

Ankara blames the separatist group for the deaths of more than 35,000 people since the early 1980s when the PKK began its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east of Turkey.

The PKK is considered by the United States and the European Union to be a terrorist group. (dpa)