"Turkish planes bombed three villages in northern Kurdistan in the night. We have no reports of victims," said Major General Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for the peshmerga, the armed force of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

A spokesman for the Kurdish rebels also confirmed the attack.

"Turkish planes bombed the uninhabited hamlets of Khorakouk, Khnira and Loulan in the Qandil Mountains near the Turkish border between 3 am and 6 am today (between 2400 GMT Sunday and 0300 GMT Monday)," said Ahmed Dinis of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

No-one was hurt, he added. Dinis would not say whether any guerrillas were in the area when the jets struck.

The Qandil Mountains lie where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey meet and are known as a stronghold of the PKK, which is fighting for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey.

Turkey has carried out several air strikes in northern Iraq since December, some using intelligence supplied by the US forces in the country, and has vowed to defeat what it says are 4,000 rebels using Qandil as a rearbase.

The PKK, which is regarded as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish military since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.