ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group wanted a return to talks with the Turkish government a few months ago but it was rejected by Ankara, the leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party said on Wednesday.
A 2-1/2-year ceasefire between the outlawed PKK and the government broke down in July and has since dragged Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast into some of its worst fighting since the height of PKK's insurgency in the 1990s.
"A few months ago, we were in contact with (PKK leadership in) Qandil in an effort to return to the negotiating table. The government knew that we were working for this but the government rejected it," Selahattin Demirtas, co-head of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), said at a news conference in Istanbul.
Ankara has previously ruled out any return to the negotiating table and has said it will crush the PKK. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK took up arms in 1984.
The PKK's leadership is based in camps in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq. Broadcaster CNN Turk said Turkish warplanes struck PKK targets in northern Iraq, quoting the armed forces. No other details were immediately available.
The Turkish military has frequently carried out strikes against camps in Qandil.
The United States, Turkey and the European Union all deem the PKK, which is fighting for Kurdish autonomy, to be a terrorist group.