Turkey launched a wave of airstrikes targeting positions of Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, where the fighters have maintained presence for decades.

The Turkish military said on Monday it had destroyed 81 shelters and bunkers belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq’s Qandil mountains and positions along the borders of Turkey and northeast Syria in what it has dubbed “Operation Eagle Claw.”

“Our planes are bringing the caves down on the terrorists’ heads,” the Turkey’s Defence Ministry said on its Twitter page.

Numbers of dead and wounded remained unclear. A local official in the town of Sinjar said three members of a PKK-affiliated group were wounded in the strikes.

“The fact that no universally recognised group controls and administers the Sinjar area adequately, and years of neglect from Baghdad, leaves the small PKK-aligned forces there open to bombing by Turkey with practical impunity,” said Patrick Osgood, an Iraq specialist at Control Risks, a security consulting firm.

Video showed what a local described as a refugee camp on fire near the northern Iraqi town of Makhmour, an alleged result of the airstrikes. An official at the camp, which houses an estimated 12,000 Turkish citizens considered supporters of the PKK, told the Rudaw news agency that the airstrikes targeted positions near the camp and rendered several children unconscious, but there were no reports of any dead or wounded civilians.

Turkey has over the decades regularly launched airstrikes targeting PKK positions in northern Iraq but rarely with such intensity, across such a broad swath of territory and with scores of targets.

“Last night’s operation was the largest ever [in Iraq],” said Selami Haktan, a Turkish journalist specialising in military affairs. He described 81 targets hit by at least 25 F-16 fighter jets and an unknown number of drones.

Tensions between Ankara and the formidable guerilla organisation – listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – have ebbed and flowed over the decades.

Mr Haktan described this as a as a preemptive offensive ahead of an anticipated wave of Kurdish attacks.

“The Turkish Army’s operation targeting the PKK last night was in retaliation for the PKK’s decision that it will increase its activities on the Turkish soil,” said Mr Haktan. “The PKK has been attacking the Turkish border forces for a while. We all knew that the PKK was in massive preparation, and waiting for its time to cross the borders.”