<p>ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes were continuing on Wednesday to strike suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq, while commando troops were conducting a search and sweep operation, Turkey’s defense ministry said, as the military pressed ahead with its latest incursion into the neighboring region.</p>
<p>Turkey’s military on Friday launched a new ground and air offensive against militants of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which maintain bases in northern Iraq and have used the territory for attacks against Turkey. </p>
<p>It was the first Turkish incursion into the region since February, when 13 Turkish citizens, who were abducted by Kurdish insurgents, were found dead in a cave complex in an apparently botched operation to rescue them. </p>
<p>Turkey has conducted numerous cross-border aerial and ground operations against the PKK over the past decades and the latest offensive was centered in northern Iraq’s Metina and Avashin-Basyan regions.</p>
<p>A defense ministry statement said the operation was continuing “as planned,” with suspected PKK targets being struck “from both the air and from the ground.” </p>
<p>Commando troops, who were airlifted into the region, were meanwhile “leaving no stone unturned” while destroying suspected PKK shelters, caves, weapons, ammunition, handmade explosives and mines, according to the statement.</p>
<p>The PKK has described the latest incursion as a “genocidal attack” and called on “world democracies” to take a stance against Turkey. </p>
<p>Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, began an insurgency in Turkey’s majority Kurdish southeast region in 1984.</p>
