By Jonathon Burch
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes backed by heavy artillery struck Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq overnight, the military said on Saturday, a third consecutive night of raids.
The Turkish air strikes are the first against rebels in the mountains of northern Iraq in more than a year and mark a stark escalation of the 27-year-old conflict after the collapse of efforts to find a negotiated settlement.
The raids also follow an increase in attacks by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in southeastern Turkey that have killed some 40 Turkish security personnel in just over a month.
Turkey's General Staff said fighter planes had hit 20 rebel targets in Qandil mountain, Sinath-Haftanin, Hakurk and Gara in northern Iraq, adding the planes had returned safely.
"In coordination with the air operation, intense artillery fire was directed at 85 targets in Zap, Avasin-Basyan and Hakurk," it said in a statement on its website.
Reconnaissance flights were continuing in the area to assess the damage and to determine whether there were any casualties.
Late on Friday, a Reuters witness said at least 10 warplanes had taken off from an air base in southeastern Turkey.
The military released black and white cockpit footage showing blasts and billowing smoke as laser-guided missiles slammed into targets described as PKK shelters, stores and a bridge.
The air strikes and artillery assaults began on Wednesday night in what appeared to be retaliation for an attack in southeastern Turkey hours earlier by PKK fighters that killed nine Turkish service members.
Hours before Wednesday's raids began Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the government's patience with Kurdish separatists had "finally run out" and said those involved in militant activities would "pay the price."
The military said after the initial raids that operations would continue until the PKK was "rendered ineffective."
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has so far denied taking any casualties.
The strikes have been condemned by northern Iraq's regional government and Baghdad.
On Friday, Iraq's Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi told Reuters: "Our position is clear. We reject violations and overstepping of borders. This issue cannot be resolved through military action."
"Iraq should have been informed about this to find other ways to resolve this escalation."
"PEACEFUL SOLUTION"
But with world diplomatic attention focused on unrest in Turkey's neighbor Syria and in Libya, the air raids have sparked little reaction elsewhere and Ankara, under pressure to placate Turkish public opinion, may use this to its advantage.
PKK attacks inside Turkey are a highly sensitive issue for most Turks and many support a hardline military response.
It was not clear whether the air assaults might be a prelude to an incursion by land forces, which Turkey has sent into northern Iraq in the past to tackle PKK fighters but any incursion would almost certainly inflame ethnic tensions.
There are some 2,500 Turkish troops based in northern Iraq under a 1995 agreement with the Kurdish regional government. In order to conduct cross-border operations, Ankara needs approval from parliament. The current mandate allowing such incursions is set to expire in October.
In Turkey, further legal action could be taken against Kurdish politicians, who are boycotting parliament and are accused of close links to the PKK.
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) called on Friday for a ceasefire by the PKK and state and said the government would be blamed for further violence if it failed to press reforms sought by the 12-million-strong Kurdish minority.
"Prime Minister Erdogan will be personally responsible for each and every death from this moment on, if the government fails to take up this agenda despite the BDP's calls for a peaceful solution," senior BDP deputy Selahattin Demirtas told a news conference in Istanbul.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in 1984.
(Writing by Jonathon Burch; editing by Elizabeth Piper)