Ankara - Turkish war planes backed by artillery on Thursday night conducted attacks on a large group of Kurdish separatists inside northern Iraq, the Turkish military announced on Friday.

A Turkish General Staff spokesman said the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) group were attempting to cross into Turkey where they planned to carry out attacks on Turkish targets. A large number of the PKK group were killed in Thursday night's bombardments, the spokesman said.

The attacks come almost a week after a PKK attack on a military border post left 17 soldiers and 23 PKK separatists dead.

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

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.

On Wednesday the Turkish parliament extend by one year a mandate that allows the Turkish military to launch attacks on PKK positions in Iraq.

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