BREAKING NEWS

Turkey strikes 23 PKK members in northern Iraq air raid

Turkey struck 23 members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in an air raid some 140 kilometers (90 miles) into northern Iraq, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday.

It said all the group had been "neutralized", which typically means killed.

Turkey regularly carries out cross-border air strikes, often with armed drones, in neighboring Iraq as part of its offensive against PKK militants based there.

On Thursday, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said the military had hit 16 targets in air strikes that week in the same Asos region deep into Iraqi territory.

The PKK launched an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the ensuing conflict. The PKK is regarded as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.