different from an attack on Arbil or Sulaimaniya, the two biggest cities in Kurdish-run northern Iraq. The Kurdish leader also lent implicit support to the PKK, claiming that northern Iraq was target of the Turkish attacks because the residents there were Kurds.

Yesterday, Barzani said the Turkish operations were "unacceptable" and said he strongly condemned the attacks.

The meeting in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya was also attended by Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who also condemned the Turkish strikes in northern Iraq.

Responding to Barzani's remarks, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey speaks to the Iraqi government in Baghdad, not the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, and underlined that the cross-border operations would continue.

"We refuse to engage in any polemic and are simply exercising our country's rights stemmingfrom international law," Erdoğan told reporters when asked on Sunday night to comment on Barzani's remarks. "We have the determination [to fight the PKK]. Our determination will continue."

Iraqi Kurdish officials said Turkish fighter jets bombed PKK targets in northern Iraq on Sunday, but there was no confirmation of this from the Turkish military. Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga security forces, said the Turkish warplanes bombed an area about 85 kilometers north of Arbil near the border with Turkey on Sunday for about an hour and a half. He said there were no civilian casualties because the area was deserted due to fear of Turkish attacks.

If confirmed, it would be the fourth Turkish military operation against the PKK in the past week in northern Iraq.On Dec.