BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: One civilian was killed and three more were wounded when Turkish jets shelled border regions in Kurdistan region, according to a source from the border guards.

 

 

"The jets shelled Qandeel mountain and Beshdar regions in northeast of Sulaimaniya, killing a civilian and injuring three," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

 

 

Turkey has stepped up air strikes on suspected PKK rebels in northern Iraq over the past year and the raids have fueled tensions between Ankara and the Kurdistan Regional Government.

 

 

Ties between Iraq and Turkey have been marred by several disputes this year, including Ankara's refusal to extradite Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who has been sentenced to death in absentia by a Baghdad court.

 

 

About 45,000 people have been killed since the PKK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms for autonomy in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984.

 

SH (TS)/SR