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Kurds say Turkish army shells Iraq border area

ARBIL, Iraq, Jan 11, 2008 (AFP) - The Turkish army on Friday pounded areas across the border in northern Iraq with artillery fire, continuing its assaults on suspected rebel positions, a Kurdish border guard official said.

Major General Jabar Yawar, spokesman for the Peshmerga border guard in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdistan area, told AFP that there were no immediate reports of casualties.

"From seven until 10 this morning there was artillery shelling on the border near Amadiyah" in the Dohuk region, Yawar said.

"The local residents heard this bombing. We contacted the border guards who confirmed the attack but had no details of place."

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 soldiers in its southeast near the Iraqi border, and in October the Ankara government secured a one-year parliamentary authorisation for cross-border military action to hunt down Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.

The Turkish army has confirmed three bombing raids on PKK positions by Turkish aircraft since December 16, which it claims have killed more than 160 rebels.

Iraqi Kurds have reported two other air strikes this month that Turkey has not confirmed.

The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984, in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

The group is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.