"We strongly condemn this criminal act and publicly state that this action is first and foremost against the interests of the people of Kurdistan," a statement from the office of Iraqi Kurdish president Massud Barzani said.

"We call for an immediate end to these attacks and we reiterate our position that violence and conflict are not a solution."

The rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has bases in Iraq's Kurdish region, killed at least 24 Turkish soldiers overnight in simultaneous attacks in southeast Turkey, after which Ankara hit back with cross-border air strikes on PKK bases while Turkish troops crossed into neighbouring Iraq.

The attacks by PKK rebels struck eight locations in Cukurca and Yuksekova in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, local security sources said, in one of the army's deadliest days in its 27-year battle against Kurdish separatists.

"According to the latest confirmed information from Cukurca, the conflict region, 24 of our soldiers fell martyr and 18 of them were wounded," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in televised remarks.

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