ANKARA, Dec 16: Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq early on Sunday, Turkey’s military said, the first such confirmed attack since the US-led invasion of Iraq. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman.

The fighter jets hit rebel positions close to the border with Turkey and the Qandil mountain, which straddles the Iraq-Iran border and is 100km from the frontier between Iraq and Turkey, the military said in a statement posted on its website. It said the operation was directed against the rebels and not against the local population.

All planes returned to their bases safely and the army continued firing on the targets with long-range weapons, the military said.—AP