Turkish military planes take off from an air base in Diyarbakir

(13 Nov 2007) 1. Fighter jet taxiing on runway 2. Wide shot of Turkish airbase 3. Various of fighter jets taking off and in the air 4. Various of jets landing 5. Various of air base 6. Military aircraft taking off from airbase STORYLINE: Several hours after reports of a dawn air strike inside Iraq on Tuesday, about a dozen warplanes were filmed by AP Television taking off and landing from an air base in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey. It was unclear where they were headed or from where they were returning. Meanwhile Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq, according to Iraqi officials, in what would be the first air strike since border tensions escalated in recent months. Turkish media reported warplanes were involved in the dawn raid. A spokesman for the Kurdish regional administration, denied the reports but said two Turkish warplanes dropped flares on Monday in the mountains near Zakhu. An Iraqi Army officer who supervises border guards, said the airstrikes occurred before dawn on abandoned villages northeast of Zakhu, an Iraqi Kurdish town near the border with Turkey. There were no casualties, he said. It would be the first major Turkish action against Kurdish rebels since Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met US President George W. Bush in Washington earlier this month. The United States and Iraq have pressured Turkey to avoid a large-scale attack on rebel bases in northern Iraq, fearing such an operation would destabilise what has been the calmest region in the country. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...