( Reuters ) - Turkish warplanes attacked 10 villages in northern Iraq early on Sunday, killing one woman and wounding two other people, local officials said.
If the death is confirmed it would be the first since Turkey stepped up artillery bombardments and airstrikes on suspected Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq in recent months.
The mayors of Jarawa and Sankasar , two towns north of the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya , said the airstrikes were launched at 2 a.m. (6 p.m. EST) and continued for several hours. Several homes and a school were destroyed, they said.
The two mayors said one woman was killed, although a third mayor said he was only aware of two people being wounded.
In Ankara, the Turkish military's General Staff said in a statement its warplanes had attacked Kurdish rebel targets.
Turkey's armed forces have conducted several cross-border military operations in recent weeks against rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who use northern Iraq as a base from which to attack security forces inside Turkey.
Ankara has massed up to 100,000 troops near the mountainous border with northern Iraq, backed by tanks, artillery and warplanes.