Some 90 to 100 members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) were killed during the Turkish air raids in northern Iraq, Turkish military said Tuesday.

Jets of the Turkish Air Force conducted several air raids in the past few days on the PKK camps in northern Iraq and the region around Qandil Mountain, Turkish military said in a statement posted on its website.

"The Turkish jets hit 13 targets in Metina, Zap, Avashin- Bashyan and Kharkurk on Aug. 20, four targets in Qandil, Gara, Zap and Metina on Aug. 21, and seven targets in Zap, Kharkurk, Avashin- Bashyan and Qandil on Aug. 22," it said.

"During the air offensive with the high-tech target acquisition and shooting control systems, the jets hit 132 targets while artillery units shelled 349 targets. Seventy-three hiding places, six shelters, 18 caves, eight depots, 14 buildings, one arsenal, nine anti-aircraft positions and three control points were destroyed," it said.

"According to initial information, 90 to 100 terrorists were rendered ineffective. More than 80 terrorists were wounded. They were taken to nearby hospitals and villages in the region. A number of terrorists fled to villages and forced residents in those villages to be a human shield," it said.

The PKK rebels attacked a military convoy on Aug. 17 at the Cukurca town in the southeastern province of Hakkari, leaving eight Turkish soldiers and one village guard dead and 15 soldiers wounded.

"Heinous attacks of the terrorist organization will be given the harshest response. The fight against terrorism will continue resolutely without giving any concessions from democracy and the rule of law," Turkish National Security Council said in a statement issued after a four-and-a-half hour meeting chaired by President Abdullah Gul one day after the Aug. 17 attack.

Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. More than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK during the past over two decades.

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