Ten warplanes took off from an airbase in southeastern Turkey on Friday on what appeared to herald a third night of strikes against Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq, a Reuters witness said.

There was no immediate confirmation of the latest sorties or their targets from the Turkish military.

The Turkish raids, the first against rebels holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq in more than a year, mark a stark escalation of the 27-year-old conflict after the collapse of efforts towards a negotiated settlement. – Reuters