(AP)
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Turkey's military said today airstrikes on suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq this week have killed an estimated 90 to 100 guerrillas and warned that it would press ahead with offensives against the group both inside Turkey and across the border. "Iraq's north and domestic areas will be monitored for separatist terrorist activity and air and ground operations will continue," it said in a statement.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, had a very different number of casualties: zero. Turkey's claim was a "baseless fabrication" intended to "raise the spirits of their soldiers and to create more pretexts to continue their war against civilians," said a PKK spokesman. The Kurdish and central Iraqi governments have been extremely hesitant to criticize Turkey for the airstrikes. Turkey is one of Iraq's main trading partners, and even some people in the Kurdish region do not support the rebels' violent struggle.
