Turkey Strikes Kurd Rebel Bases in Iraq, Rules out New Talks

Turkish warplanes have bombed Kurdish rebel bases in Turkey and northern Iraq, the army said Tuesday, as officials announced the first militant deaths since the government swept back to power at the weekend.

Ankara also ruled out an immediate resumption of peace talks that have been stalled since tit-for-tat violence erupted in July, shattering a 2013 ceasefire.

The military said it had targeted bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Monday in the southeastern Hakkari province, as well as several northern Iraqi regions including their main stronghold on Qandil mountain.

"Shelters, caves and arms depots identified as being used by terrorists from the separatist terrorist organization were destroyed with air bombardments," the military said. 

The operation was launched just after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a surprise victory in Sunday's election.

Officials said Tuesday that three Kurdish militants had been killed in clashes with security forces in the restive southeast.

In the Silvan district of the Kurdish-dominated Diyarbakir province, a 22-year-old suspected PKK member died after clashes that erupted Monday when security forces swooped on trenches and barricades put up by the PKK and imposed a curfew. 

Another two members of the PKK youth branch were killed in the Yuksekova district of Hakkari province when police launched similar action there, security sources told AFP.

- Conditions not ripe for talks -

The government launched a new air war against the PKK after militant attacks in July, shattering a fragile 2013 truce aimed at ending three decades of bloody conflict.

Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said conditions were not yet ripe to revive peace talks.

"For us to say the peace process has started, the factors poisoning this process should be removed," he said in an interview with NTV television.

Akdogan however declined to give a direct answer when asked if the state would start talking with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, saying certain conditions must be fulfilled.

"The PKK's departure from Turkey, a state of inactivity in the full sense... only after that can other issues be discussed."

Kurdish rebels launched an armed campaign for greater autonomy in southeastern Turkey in 1984 and the conflict has since claimed 45,000 lives.

Fighting resumed after a bomb attack on pro-Kurdish activists in the border town of Suruc in July that killed 34 people and was blamed on the Islamic State group.

Kurdish militants accuse Ankara of collaborating with IS jihadists, who are battling fellow Kurd fighters in Syria.

After a massive suicide bombing last month on a peace rally in Ankara which killed 102 people, the PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire, a move that was seen as an attempt to calm tensions for the election.

International observers have charged that the election was marred by security concerns and that army operations in the southeast hampered the ability of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to campaign.

Akdogan however denied the criticism and said elections were held "peacefully."

The HDP became the first party representing Turkey's estimated 15-20 million Kurds to enter parliament in the June election, but it lost votes on Sunday, a decline blamed on the renewed conflict.