Turkish warplanes PKK militants in n. Iraq

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's military said it launched an airstrike against a group of Kurdish separatist PKK rebels in northern Iraq late Sunday.

The military said this is the seventh time it attacked the rebels in northern Iraq since they killed 17 Turkish soldiers in an attack eight days ago.

The group targeted Sunday included senior guerrillas and the operation was successful, the army statement said.

The military has stepped up its operations against the PKK across the border in northern Iraq after deadly attack by the separatists on Turkish soldiers.

Turkey's parliament Wednesday extended for another year a mandate for the military to launch operations against PKK rebels based in northern Iraq.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its armed campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

(Editing by Sami Aboudi)