IRAQ - Dec 16 - Turkish Fighters Bomb Kurdish Rebel Targets Inside Iraq.

Turkish fighter jets bomb Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq before dawn, in an escalation of its effort to weaken the Kurdish guerilla group that hides there. An Iraqi official said one woman had been killed in the strikes. Planes struck targets in the regions of Zap, Avashin, and Hakurk, along the border with Iraq, the Turkish military said in a statement. The strikes, which began around 1 a.m. and lasted for about three hours, also hit Qandil, an area further inside Iraq, where some of the commanders of the Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its initials, PKK, are believed to hide. It was the second set of strikes against the Kurdish militant group since PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey met with Pres Bush in Washington last month. The first, on Dec. 1, were artillery attacks from Turkey on targets inside Iraq. Turkey, a NATO member, had been threatening a military operation into northern Iraq, but appears to be sticking to a more limited offensive, because a larger-scale invasion, like those it carried out in the 1990's, would anger its important ally, the US. The Kurdish rebels, who have bases in Turkey and Iraq, have been fighting the Turkish military since the 1980s. They want an autonomous Kurdish region in eastern Turkey. The strikes in Qandil hit near eight villages, according to Hassan Ibrahim, a local mayor in the area. One woman was killed in the village of Asteawkan, he said, and two more were injured in the village of Leawzhea. Six houses there were destroyed in the strikes. "The people of those villages are civilian", Ibrahim said, adding that they "are far away from Turkey boarders - hundreds of kilometers". The Turkish television station NTV reported that the strike involved more than 50 planes, and that it choice of targets was based on American intelligence. The military said it hit border areas with artillery fire after the air strikes, and that helicopters also flew missions along the border. The Turkish government on Sunday reiterated its right to take unilateral military action against the guerillas, even if it is on Iraqi territory. "We as the government are determined to use all political, geopolitical and military vehicles against the separatist terror organisation in the most effective way", Erdogan said on Dec 16 on Turkish television. At the same time, the government says it is working toward a longer-term solution, and has begun to amend a law that would pardon certain fighters. The effort, which opposition politicians have been highly critical of, has failed several times in the past. "Let's look together for ways of winning over the people instead of alienating them", Erdogan said recently. "If we are to get rid of terrorism, this can become possible by keeping open the door of democratic politics as a way of solving problems".