Ankara - The Turkish military on Friday claimed to have killed 25 Kurdish rebels and wounded several others in airstrikes last week on Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq.

General Staff spokesman Metin Gurak told reporters that Turkish war planes hit the PKK positions in the Qandil mountains near the Iraqi border with Iran on October 17.

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.

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