(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-23 09:02

ANKARA -- Turkish armed forces killed 24 Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels in clashes on Friday as Ankara continued its cross-border ground operation into northern Iraq, with five soldiers also died, said the military.

Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles move near the southeastern Turkish town of Silopi, near the Iraqi border, February 22, 2008. Agencies]

The military, the General Staff, said in a statement posted on its website that there were dozens more rebels also killed by artillery and helicopter gunships in the fighting which continued sporadically.

Earlier in the day, the General Staff announced that its armed forces TSK launched a cross-border ground operation into the north of Iraq as of 1900 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Thursday following an artillery bombardment.

The ground operation is backed by Turkish Air Forces jets, the General Staff said, adding that TSK would return to Turkey after it achieves the planned targets.

The Turkish military has launched several cross-border attacks to fight separatist PKK rebels, who use northern Iraq as a launch pad for attacks against Turkey.

The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast of the country. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the two-decade conflict.