Turkey's air force launched a "successful" operation against a total of 60 targets in the Qandil and Hakurk regions late Wednesday, said the General Staff in a statement on its website. The PKK said the attacks resumed in the morning.

The Turkish military said its operations both within Turkey and in parts of Iraq used as a safe haven by the PKK "will continue until it is eradicated."

Dozdar Hammo, the PKK spokesman in northern Iraq, said the jets also bombed rebel bases in the Qandil and Khanairah areas, near the Turkish border, for about an hour from around 8:00 am (0500 GMT) on Thursday.

Hammo said no casualties were reported from the latest strikes or the raids on Wednesday night.

It is the first time in more than a year that the Turkish military has carried out air strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq.

The strikes followed the deadly attack on Wednesday in the town of Cukurca in the southeast of the country claimed by the PKK, which is branded a terrorist group by Turkey as well as the European Union and United States.

Wednesday's attack came after Turkey's governnment announced a "new era" in the fight against the PKK.

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

Turkey's National Security Council (MGK), which brings top civilian and military officials, convened Wednesday afternoon to discuss the "new strategy" against the PKK, reported the private NTV television.

Ankara has been revisiting its strategy against the PKK for some time. New measures being considered by the government include sending special police and professinal army units to the combat zones along the border with Iraq.

Information gathered by the police and intelligence agents will be pooled together and the Turkish military will receive a new green-light for cross-border operations under the new strategy, said NTV.

President Abdullah Gul, who is chairing the council, will seek collective support from ruling and opposition parties in parliament in the fight against the organisation, reported the Turkish media.

Analysts predict an escalation in PKK attacks in the coming months.

"I think the attacks will continue until December," Nihat Ali Ozcan, a security expert at the Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, told AFP. He said the government can "absorb deaths of 500 soldiers annually" by the PKK.

Members of the group often return to their bases in northern Iraq in the winter as their camps are high in the snow-covered mountains in the Qandil region.

Mehmet Tezkan, a columnist in daily Milliyet, said Syria might be behind the latest PKK attack. Ankara's relations with Damascus have plummetted in recent weeks after Erdogan's outspoken criticism of Syria's crackdown on protests.

"PKK attacks are surging as long as Ankara warns Damascus" to stop its military operations against civilians, Tezkan added.

Other observers were criticial of the government's failure to prevent PKK attacks.

Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) "has been in power for nine years to solve this problem," wrote Mehmet Yilmaz in the Hurriyet daily.