Jets bomb PKK sites in Iraq

Eight F-16 fighter jets struck 12 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets on Mount Qandil near the Iraqi-Iranian border, in a raid that lasted around two hours.

The operation was mounted despite continuing peace talks between Turkey and the rebels' imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan to end the long conflict.

today, the Turkish government approved a list of pro-Kurdish politicians to visit the jailed leader.

Turkey launched tentative negotiations with the PKK leader in his prison on Imrali island near Istanbul in October, drawing up a framework to end a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.

But there has been little sign of progress towards peace since two Kurdish politicians met Mr Ocalan on January 3.

And further meetings were made less likely when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made it clear that a group of prominent Kurdish deputies who had been filmed embracing militants would be barred from meeting the head of the PKK.

But Parliament's pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party appears to have bowed to that pressure by proposing three MPs rather than the party leaders they had initially intended.

The delegation which is set to visit Mr Ocalan on Saturday consists of non-Kurdish left-wing film-maker Sirri Sureyya Onder, Altan Tan, who has an Islamist background, and Pervin Buldan, a long-time Kurdish female activist.