SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters):

Turkish warplanes targeting Kurdish rebels bombed villages deep in northern Iraq yesterday, killing one woman and forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes, local officials said.

In Ankara, the Turkish military's General Staff said in a statement that its warplanes had attacked targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which uses northern Iraq as a base from which to attack security forces inside Turkey.

Private broadcaster CNN Turk quoted unnamed Turkish military sources denying that Iraqi villages had been targeted. Turkey's NTV television station said 50 aircraft took part in the operation.

If the death of the woman is confirmed, it would be the first since Turkey stepped up artillery bombardments and air strikes on suspected PKK bases in the Qandil mountains in October.

The mayor of Sankasar town, north of the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, Abdullah Ibrahim, said 200 families had fled their homes in villages in the Sankasar and Jarawa administrative areas and at least 10 houses had been destroyed.

Commenting on the air strikes, Turkish Prime Minister Tay-yip Erdogan said his govern-ment was determined to use every kind of instrument in the fight against terrorism - diplomatic, political and military.

"We will continue to wage this battle for our nation's unity and peace, both inside and outside Turkey," he said in televised comments made during a visit to the Aegean port of Izmir.

The mayors of Jarawa and Sankasar said the air strikes were launched at 2:00 a.m. (2300 GMT) and continued for several hours. The villages targeted are about 100 km (60 miles) south of the Turkish border.

The mayors said one woman was killed and at least two people wounded. A senior officer in Iraq's border guards confirmed the air strike but said he had no details on casualties.