Ankara - Turkish Air Force jets bombed a number of suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq late Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the Turkish military confirmed.

In a short statement posted on its website, the Turkish General Staff said warplanes had bombed the banned Kurdish Workers'Party (PKK) positions in the Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions of northern Iraq.

According to the statement the airstrikes were successful and all planes had safely returned to their bases.

The airstrikes come a day after nine Turkish soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir. The PKK later claimed responsibility for that attack.

The Turkish military estimates there are up to 5,000 PKK fighters who use camps in mountainous northern Iraq from which they organize and launch attacks on 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.