F-16 jets flew up to 50 kilometres (31 miles) into Iraqi airspace to pound Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek told ruling party colleagues, the Huriyet newspaper reported.

Heavy artillery also pounded rebel positions inside the Kurdish-held autonomous north of Iraq, Cicek said.

Tensions between Baghdad and Ankara have risen since Sunday's ambush on a Turkish military patrol along the tense Iraqi border in which 12 soldiers and 34 PKk rebels were killed, according to an official toll.

Eight soldiers are missing and the PKK has said it is holding them hostage.

The Turkish government last week obtained parliamentary authorization to carry out cross-border strikes into northern Iraq to hit PKK rebels who have been waging a bloody separatist campaign since 1984.