"Our fighter planes fired upon some 70 targets, among them many facilities used only by the terrorist organization," during the air strike on Monday, the general staff said in a statement on its Internet site.

"All targets were hit with complete accuracy," it claimed.

The targets included 42 hide-outs, six caves, 15 logistical facilities and seven training facilities, the statement said, adding that authorities were still evaluating rebel losses.

Monday's strike was the fifth air raid against bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in neighbouring northern Iraq since December 16.

The army has also carried out a ground cross-border operation to stop a group of rebels trying to infiltrate Turkey.

Iraqi Kurds, who run northern Iraq, reported two other air strikes in December that Ankara did not confirm.

The PKK, blacklisted by Ankara and the international community as a terrorist organization, has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984 in a conflict that has killed more than 37,000 people.

Ankara says an estimated 4,000 PKK militants take refuge in northern Iraq, where they are tolerated by the local Kurdish administration as they use camps there as a springboard for attacks inside Turkey.