The Turkish military said its war planes raided Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets following intelligence that "a large group of terrorists, who have been watched for a long time, are preparing to pass the winter in eight caves and hideouts in the Zap region."
The general staff added in a statement that its planes "hit the targets in an effective air strike that started on the morning hours of December 26."
Wednesday's attack, in which no casualties were reported, was the third cross-border operation in 10 days and more assaults are expected to continue with the apparent approval and coordination of the U.S., the major powerbroker in Iraq.
The Turkish army said Tuesday that more than 150 PKK rebels were killed and at least 200 rebel targets were destroyed on December 16 in the largest air strike in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq.
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and Europe, did not say how many of its fighters were killed, but stressed that Ankara was exaggerating the number of casualties, noting that its elements were spread out in small groups across the Qandil mountains along the Turkish-Iraqi frontier.
Turkey has deployed some 100,000 troops along its border with Iraq following parliament's authorization to the army in October to launch a military campaign against PKK rebels in northern Iraq.
Around 3,500 Turkish Kurd rebels are believed to be based in northern Iraq and Ankara accuses Iraqi Kurds of sheltering and supporting the PKK.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched an armed campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey in 1984.
Ankara has indicated its military assaults would continue amid hints that it would not be carrying out these "successful attacks" without Washington's assistance.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Wednesday praised U.S. intelligence support for the Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq, according to the Anatolia news agency.
"Things are going on well at the moment; intelligence is being shared," he was reported as saying, adding the U.S. assistance "befits" their NATO alliance. "Both of us are satisfied. This is how it should be. We could have come to this point earlier," Gul said.
Turkey has been adamant about hunting down the rebels across the border since 12 troops were killed in an ambush in October, but waited for a green light from Washington, and a U.S. decision to share intelligence, before launching their attacks.
Turkish media reports said Washington will continue to provide intelligence support for the military operations on the condition that Turkey refrain from ground incursions and to keep the air strikes limited to suspected PKK targets that exclude inhabited villages and sites controlled by the Iraqi Kurdish administration.
Iraqi Kurdish officials said they could not confirm the level of damage the Turkish air strikes have had on the villages near the border, but complained the attacks were nevertheless displacing many families.
An Iraqi Kurdish spokesman said the fighter jets Wednesday targeted deserted villages, which were vacated by hundreds of people who took refuge deeper into northern Iraq in the past two weeks. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported that at least 1,800 people have been displaced from their villages due to the air strikes.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurds are increasingly nervous that the Turkish military operations, with no end in sight, would destabilize the only region that enjoys relative peace in war-torn Iraq, threatening the only Kurdish entity that enjoys autonomy and cultural rights.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani – a Kurd – said he was ready to mediate between Ankara and the PKK to stop the fighting. He was quoted in Iraqi Kurdish newspapers as saying on Wednesday he would act as a mediator if the PKK agrees to put down its arms in return for a Turkish general amnesty on all rebels.
He said if the Baghdad central government and the Turkish government agree to tasking him with this role, he would seek to hand over the fighters to a third country other than Iraq and Turkey.