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 The strikes hit six Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets
including shelters, depots and caves, a statement from Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's office said. A senior official told
Reuters it was the biggest assault since the campaign started.
Turkey launched near-simultaneous strikes against PKK camps in Iraq
and Islamic State fighters in Syria last Friday, in what Davutoglu
has called a "synchronized fight against terror".
The NATO member also opened up its air bases to the U.S.-led
coalition against Islamic State, joining the front-line in the
battle against the jihadists after years of reluctance. NATO gave
Turkey its full political support on Tuesday.
But Turkey's assaults on the PKK have so far been far heavier than
its strikes against Islamic State, fuelling suspicions that its real
agenda is keeping Kurdish political and territorial ambitions in
check, something the government denies.
It has made clear that its operations against Islamic State in Syria
will not include air cover for Syrian Kurdish fighters also battling
the jihadists.
 The chairman of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition HDP party,
Selahattin Demirtas, whose lawmakers Erdogan wants to see prosecuted
for alleged links to the PKK, called for an immediate halt to
violence on both sides.
"We have to establish democratic pressure that will help silence the
guns immediately. We are ready to work with all politicians who want
to achieve this," he told reporters.
Turkish officials have said the strikes against the PKK are a
response to increased militant violence in recent weeks, including a
series of targeted killings of police officers and soldiers blamed
on the Kurdish militant group.
On Tuesday, fighter jets also bombed PKK targets in the southeastern
Turkish province of Sirnak, bordering Iraq, after an attack on a
group of gendarmes.
The PKK has said the strikes are an attempt to "crush" the Kurdish
political movement and create an "authoritarian, hegemonic system"
in Turkey. But it has so far stopped short of explicitly pulling out
of a peace process with the state.
Erdogan initiated negotiations in 2012 to try to end the PKK
insurgency, largely fought in the predominantly-Kurdish southeast
and which has killed 40,000 people since 1984. A fragile ceasefire
had been holding since March 2013.
Western allies have said they recognize Turkey's right to
self-defense but have urged it not to allow years of peace efforts
with the PKK to collapse. While deeming the group a terrorist
organization, Washington also depends heavily on allied Syrian
Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State.
But on Tuesday, Erdogan said the process had become impossible and
urged parliament to strip politicians with links to the militants of
immunity from prosecution, a move seen as aimed squarely at the HDP.
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DOMESTIC AGENDA
Parliament is due to discuss the military operations in Iraq and
Syria, as well as Erdogan's call for the lifting of immunity, in
what will be a heated session later on Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan, who has overseen the
government side of peace efforts, accused the HDP of sacrificing the
process in the name of its own political ambition, saying it had
been more interested in winning enough votes to enter parliament
than in working to resolve the conflict.
The HDP won 13 percent of the vote in a June 7 poll, helping to
deprive the AKP Erdogan founded of a majority in parliament for the
first time since 2002 and forcing it to seek a junior coalition
partner or face a fresh election.
"The HDP has destroyed the trust, has betrayed the peace process,"
Akdogan told the state-run Anadolu news agency, but stopped short of
declaring it definitively over.
"It is unclear how the process will continue. First the PKK should
put down weapons. If there's anything to be discussed, we can
discuss it after that," he said.
Many Kurds believe that by reviving conflict with the PKK, Erdogan
seeks to undermine support for the HDP ahead of a possible fresh
election. He has made no secret of his desire to change the
constitution and amass stronger powers, virtually impossible without
a strong single-party AKP government.
The AKP has been holding coalition talks, but the leader of the
largest opposition party, the CHP, said last week he saw an early
election as the most likely outcome.
"The president does not want a coalition to be formed. He knows that
if a coalition is formed whatever remains from his executive
presidency dream will completely be destroyed," said Idris Baluken,
a senior HDP lawmaker.
"He wants Turkey to have a snap election quickly."
(Additional reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu and Asli Kandemir in
Istanbul, Orhan Coskun, Gulsen Solaker, Ece Toksabay and Dasha
Afanasieva in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Giles
Elgood)
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