ANKARA (Agencies)
Turkey's military ground offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels in northern Iraq is planned to last 15 days, private broadcaster CNN Turk quoted security sources as saying on Friday.
Earlier, the military General Staff and Turkey's political leaders said the troops would return home as soon as they had accomplished their mission against the PKK, but they gave no timeframe.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was quoted as saying on Friday that Turkey should respect Iraq's borders and avoid military confrontation.
The United States urged Turkey to limit military operations to specified PKK targets while the United Kingdom called for an end to all operations.
Turkish NTV television news channel on Friday said 10,000 troops were involved in the operation.
A statement by the Turkish army, confirming the ground offensive, did not give figures but said the incursion followed air and artillery strikes on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) camps across the border between 10:00 am and 6:00 pm (0800 GMT and 1600 GMT) Thursday.
"Following this successful offensive, a cross-border ground operation backed by the Air Force was launched at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT)," said the statement posted on the general staff Internet site.
The statement said the Armed Forces "attach special importance to Iraq's territorial integrity and stability."
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Iraq does not know Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, meanwhile, said Iraq's government is not aware of any Turkish ground offensive into northern Iraq overnight to hunt down Kurdish PKK guerrillas based there.
"Until this minute, we have not received anything from the border guards about Turkish forces crossing the international border," Zebari told Reuters by telephone.
The Kurdish Regional Government in the largely autonomous area denied there had been any ground incursion.
"There has been no incursion by the Turkish forces in the Kurdistan region," said Falah Mustapha, in charge of foreign relations for the KRG.
A PKK source also denied there had been any ground attack.
In a phone call to his Turkish counterpart, al-Maliki told Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan that Iraq considered the rebels a threat to their shared border, but urged dialogue to promote security.
"Maliki asked Erdogan to respect the sovereignty of Iraq's borders and inviolability of its lands... and stressed the importance of avoiding a military solution," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
"Maliki also said the Iraqi government supports the security and stability of Turkey and considers the PKK a terrorist organization that represents a threat to Turkey and the border areas between the two countries," Dabbagh continued.
A spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga security forces Jabbar Yawar on Thursday said the Turkish military had shelled several Kurdish rebel positions in a remote mountainous area.
Turkish planes then later staged attacks near Amadiya, close to the Turkish border in Dahuk province, for three hours but it was not clear what the targets were. Yawar said no casualties were reported.
NATO member Turkey says it has the right under international law to hit PKK rebels who take shelter in northern Iraq and have mounted attacks inside Turkey that have killed scores of troops in recent months. |
