Turkish military says targeted PKK rebels

Thirty people were killed in an apparent air strike by Turkish warplanes in southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border overnight, a local official told Reuters on Thursday.   

"We have 30 corpses, all of them are burned.

The state knew that these people were smuggling in the region," said Fehmi Yaman, the mayor of Uludere in Sirnak province. No further details were immediately available.   

Turkish warplanes regularly strike Kurdish militant targets in the region.

The Turkish military said it launched air strikes against suspected Kurdish militants in northern Iraq near the Turkish border on Wednesday night and was investigating the incident after local officials said 35 villagers were killed.

The general staff said on its website that drones had identified a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerillas on Wednesday evening after a tip-off they planned to attack Turkish security bases in southeastern Turkey. Warplanes targeted them with strikes in an area with no civilian population, it added.