Ankara - Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq Wednesday night, the Turkish General Staff announced on Thursday.

In a short statement on its official website, the General Staff said Turkish Air Force planes successfully hit 13 suspected Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) targets inside northern Iraq. The statement said that special care was taken not to hit civilian properties.

No information on what kind of targets were hit nor their locations inside Iraq was given in the statement.

Turkish warplanes have carried out a number of bombing raids on PKK positions in northern Iraq since February when it launched incursion into northern Iraq which saw troops sent across the border to seek out PKK rebels and their camps.

According to the Turkish military, 240 PKK fighters, 24 Turkish soldiers and three Turkish state-employed village guards were killed in the week-long operation.

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 listed by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist group. (dpa)