Turkish General Staff said Wednesday that Turkish jets hit several targets of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in an air-strike conducted in the north of Iraq.

The General Staff said in a statement posted on its website that Turkish warplanes hit Wednesday the PKK targets in Qandil region, close to the Iraqi-Turkish border.

The statement said Turkish jets returned to their bases safely after the strike, adding that only the PKK was targeted and utmost attention was shown not to harm civilians during the operation.

It was the second such strike in two days. The casualties was not immediately available right now.

The Turkish forces take tougher actions against the PKK after the country's legislature extended on Oct. 8 the government's mandate to launch cross-border operations against the rebels in northern Iraq.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.

(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2008)