ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey launched a heavy air and artillery assault on Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq overnight after a declaration by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that he had lost patience with separatists fighting in southeastern Turkey.
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatists use the mountains of northern Iraq as sanctuary from which to launch attacks in south-east Turkey. The raids, the first by Turkey in the area since July 2010, responded to a surge in rebel action in recent months and an ambush on Wednesday that killed nine servicemen.