"We are entering an era where the language of war and violence will prevail," Soli Ozel, a columnist in the daily Haber Turk, wrote, while warning of the possible consequences of a new cycle of violence.

"What is most dangerous is to leave Turks, Kurds, the majority of people living in this country, desperate while they are showing with their votes at any opportunity that they are fed up with terror and war," Ozel said.

Since Wednesday Turkish jets had bombed 88 targets on bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, following an ambush by the group which killed nine security force members, the military said.

The PKK has killed 30 soldiers and other security officials within a month, according to media reports.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier signalled tougher measures against the rebels after the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, said after Wednesday's attack that the government had "run out of patience".

Last year, Ankara launched a cautious, low-profile bid for a dialogue with the Kurds, seeking to cajole the PKK into permanently laying down its arms.

State officials held direct meetings with Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the group, in his prison cell on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara, but the process has so far failed to produce any visible results.

Erdogan has toughened his tone against rebels and Kurdish politicians since his campaign for general elections in June that he won in a landslide for a straight third term in office.

Despite offering peace proposals to Ankara, Ocalan last month declared he would end negotiations with the Turkish government, saying that both it and the PKK he leads from prison were using him for their own interests.

Since then his lawyers have not been allowed to visit him in his prison.

Political scientist Nuray Mert said she was not optimistic about the developments and criticized the government for having no set plan for a solution.

"A new atmosphere, a political framework that targets those who want peace or do not think in accordance with the government, is clearly emerging," she said.

The National Security Council (MGK), bringing together top civilian and military officials, voiced support for a tougher stance against the PKK on Thursday.

"No activity which might threaten the indivisible unity of the Turkish nation will be tolerated," the council said, without giving details of measures that might be introduced.

Officials had "started to construct two parallel roads as they made a distinction between struggling against the separatist terror and continuing to take democratisation steps as a state policy," columnist Ismail Kucukkaya wrote Friday in the daily Aksam.

"The terror organisation is pushing for war and aims for more blood to be spilled. It wants a cycle of violence. The government is now taking steps to break that cycle" by means of air strikes, Kucukkaya said.

Kurdish parliamentarian Aysel Tugluk said Kurds had lost their confidence in government.

"The prime minister used his election victory to overpower his opponents. Hopes for a solution have seriously faded," Tugluk said.

Attacks on Kurds in western cities and the ongoing military operations had led to a belief that the government also aims to wipe out the Kurdish political movement, Tugluk said.

More than 40 guerrillas have been killed since the June 12 general elections, despite a ceasefire which the PKK said it would observe unless attacked, according to pro-Kurdish media.

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