The formal protest was made on Wednesday by foreign ministry Undersecretary Mohammed Jawad al-Dorki in a meeting with Turkish envoy Murat Ozcelik.

Dorki "apprised him (Ozcelik) with the Iraqi government's protest against violation of Iraq's sovereignty, bombing the border areas and targeting innocent civilians, demanding the immediate suspension of these operations," the statement said.

"The ambassador was handed a protest note on this regard," it added.

The Turkish military said on Tuesday its air attacks had killed between 90 and 100 Kurdish rebels and injured another 80, but a spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said just three of its fighters had died.

On Sunday, however, a Turkish air strike in Sulaimaniyah province in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region killed an Iraqi family of seven, according to Jabbar Yawar, a top Iraqi Kurdish official.

Ankara's renewed campaign followed a PKK attack that killed nine security personnel in southeast Turkey.

Since early July, PKK attacks in Turkey have left around 40 soldiers and policemen dead, prompting Ankara to toughen its stance in the conflict.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.