Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked Kurdish rebels

Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships reportedly attacked positions of Kurdish rebels just inside Turkey along the border with Iraq, as Turkey's military stepped up its anti-rebel operations.

As the military stepped up its anti-rebel operations, civilian and military leaders discussed the scope and duration of a possible cross-border offensive — a move that Turkey's Western allies are trying to prevent. Several F-16 warplanes loaded with bombs took off from an air base in southeastern city of Diyarbakir, private Dogan news agency and local reporters said. The warplanes and helicopter gunships bombed mountain paths used by rebels to infiltrate from neighboring Iraq.