Turkey says it hits 12 Kurdish militants in northern Iraq

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey said on Saturday it had "neutralised" 12 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq's Metina region as part of a cross-border military campaign that it has warned could expand in coming months.

The defence ministry's use of the term "neutralised" commonly means killed. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Turkey had earlier said it proposed this month to set up a "joint operation centre" with Iraq in order to fight the PKK in that country's north, where it is centred.

(Reporting by Azra Ceylan and Jonathan Spicer; editing by Mark Heinrich)