Ankara - Thirteen Kurdish rebels were killed in Turkish air force raids in the last week on Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) camps in northern Iraq, a spokesman for the Turkish General Staff said on Friday.

The spokesman said a number of Turkish jets had carried out bombing missions during the week on suspected PKK logistic targets in the Hukurk region of mountainous northern Iraq.

The Turkish military suspects there are as many as 5,000 PKK fighters holed up in northern Iraq bases from which they launch operations into Turkey.

Ankara blames the separatist group for the deaths of more than 32,000 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