ARBIL (Iraq), Dec 17: Turkish warplanes and Iranian artillery pounded border areas of northern Iraq on Wednesday as they pressed an offensive against Kurdish rebels, an Iraqi Kurdish security forces spokesman said.

“Turkish and Iranian forces are continuing to bombard the Iraqi border region on the pretext of fighting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Haj Omran and Qandil mountains districts,” Jabbar Yawar said.

“These Turkish and Iranian bombardments have caused a great deal of damage in the villages and the villagers have fled,” he added.

The Turkish military confirmed it had launched air strikes against suspected PKK rear-bases in the Qandil mountains for a second straight day.

“The planes completed their mission successfully and returned safely to their bases,” a statement on the army’s website said, adding that it had made every effort to avoid casualties among the region’s civilian population.

The PKK has fought a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. An estimated 44,000 people have died in the campaign.

Ankara charges that some 2,000 PKK rebels are operating out of rear-bases across the border in northern Iraq where it accuses the Iraqi Kurdish authorities of turning a blind eye to their activities.

The Qandil mountains lie where the borders of Iraq, Turkey and Iran meet and Iran too has accused the Iraqi Kurds of harbouring rear-bases for rebels operating inside their territory.

Iranian officials charge that many of the fighters of the the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) are in fact Turkish Kurds, not members of its own Kurdish minority.

In October, the Turkish parliament renewed an authorisation for cross-border operations into northern Iraq first granted last year.

Ankara persuaded its Nato ally Washington to provide intelligence support for the raids.

Turkey has often accused the Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous administration in the region, of tolerating and even aiding the PKK, but has said it will still pursue dialogue with them to resolve the problem.

Last month, Iraq, Turkey and the United States agreed to form a joint committee to track the threat posed by the PKK and enact measures to stop the militants’ activities.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin said that talks were under way to outline the details of the committee’s structure.

“But I can say it will start working very soon,” he told a news conference, adding that Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari is to visit Ankara in the coming days.

“We expect the Iraqi government and the regional authorities (in northern Iraq) to punctually fulfil the pledges they have made” to act against the PKK, Ozugergin said.—AFP