Turkish honour guard carry the flag-draped coffins of Lieutenant Gokhan Yavuz and private Gokhan Soylu during their funeral procession in Istanbul Nov. 15, 2007. Yavuz and Soylu lost their lives with two other soldiers two days ago during clashes with PKK Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkish province of Sirnak near the Iraqi border.(Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep TayyipErdogan called the operation conducted by Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) against camps of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq a "success", the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday.

Speaking at a ceremony in Izmir province of western Turkey, Erdogan said, "the operation conducted during nighttime became successful according to our preliminary assessments."

"TSK conducted a comprehensive operation against camps of the terrorist organization in the north of Iraq at night in line with the authorization by the government," he said.

Erdogan congratulated Turkey's military and said, "we will continue to use political, military and diplomatic means against separatist terrorist organization."

A statement issued by the Turkish General Staff and posted on its website said on Sunday the Turkish warplanes bombed the PKK targets in northern Iraq early in the day.

It said the warplanes hit PKK targets in regions bordering the Turkish territories as well as in Qandil Mountain, which is further away from the frontier.

The Turkish warplanes bombed the PKK targets at 01:00 local time (GMT 2300 Saturday) and returned to their bases at 04:15 (GMT0215), said the statement.

The military operation was also backed by the Turkish Land Forces' long-range weapons, it added.

"The operations will continue in line with the necessities of the military within the scope of the authorization given to the Turkish Armed Forces in fight against terrorist organization PKK," the statement said.

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

Security operations are underway in southeastern and eastern Turkey as 100,000 Turkish troops have massed along Turkish-Iraqi borders in preparations for a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3,000-strong PKK rebels.

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. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.