Turkey's military has carried out air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq hours after a deadly bombing in Ankara, the state-run news agency said.

The Anadolu Agency said nine F-16s and two F-4 jets raided 18 positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK in the northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the group's leadership is based.

Police detained dozens of suspected Kurdish militants in a southern Turkish city on Monday.

Sunday's blast came as Turkey's security forces were set to launch large-scale operations against militants in two mainly Kurdish towns - Yuksekova, near the border with Iraq and in Nusaybin, which borders Syria - after authorities imposed curfews there, prompting some residents to flee. The military deployed large numbers of tanks near the towns as the curfews were announced.

Turkey has been imposing curfews in several flashpoints in the south-east since August to root out militants linked to the PKK, who had set up barricades, dug trenches and planted explosives. The military operations have raised concerns over human rights violations and scores of civilian deaths. Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced by the fighting.

Last week, Turkey's military ended a three-month operation against the militants in the historic Sur district of Diyarbakir - the largest city in the country's mostly Kurdish southeast. On Sunday, authorities eased the curfew in some streets and one neighborhood of Sur, but the siege over the district's main areas was still in place.

The PKK has been designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US nd the European Union. A fragile peace process between the PKK and the Turkish state collapsed in July, reigniting a battle that has cost tens of thousands of lives since 1984.