ISTANBUL, TURKEY (BNO NEWS) -- Turkish military officials on Tuesday announced that the recent air and artillery strikes against Kurdish rebels have killed up to 100 people.

According to the Turkish General Staff, which directed the operations, since last Wednesday, the country's Air Forces Command's 2nd Air Force Command in Diyarbakır and the Land Forces Command's border bases conducted offensives on almost 500 targets, identified as Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases.

Air strikes hit 132 targets, while ground forces attacked 349 targets in the Kandil Mountains and in the Khakurk, Avaşin-Basyan and Zap regions. The General Staff said the operations destroyed 73 hiding places, bomb shelters, 18 caves, 8 depots, 14 facilities, an ammunition store, 9 anti-craft stations and three control points, killing an estimated 90 to 100 PKK rebels.

In addition to the killed PKK rebels, around 80 others were reported injured during the offensive. However, officials noted that it is impossible to determine exact figures as initial information was gathered from nearby hospitals and villages, where many terrorists fled.

The offensive began after eight Turkish soldiers and a village guard were killed last Wednesday when a roadside bomb and an ambush targeted a military convoy in the Çukurca district in Turkey's southeastern province of Hakkari near the Iraqi border. Among the fatalities was a military officer who was in command of the troops.

Turkey responded with fighter jets bombing suspected Kurdish rebel bases in the Meteen area of Iraq later that evening, and additional airstrikes by the Turkish military were carried out the following days. The attacks marked Turkey's first military operations in northern Iraq since July 2010.

Suspected PKK rebels, which have killed at least 40 Turkish soldiers since July, also conducted further attacks against Turkish military posts with rocket launchers and assault rifles on Thursday evening, killing two soldiers in the Eruh district of Siirt Province.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the country has lost its patience with terrorists fighting in southeastern Turkey, while Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ later stated that the fight against terrorism will continue until its roots were destroyed, calling on all political parties to show unity with the ruling party's fight against terror.

The PKK, which has been labeled as a terrorist organizations by the United States and the European Union, was established in 1984 in its efforts to establish the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey as an autonomous Kurdish state. Over 40,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in violent clashes since the group took arms. The PKK maintains its military bases across the Iraqi border.