Turkey army launches land offensive into N.Iraq

Turkish troops have crossed into northern Iraq in their hunt for Kurdish PKK guerrillas, the military said on Friday, but the United States and the European Union urged Ankara to keep the campaign limited.

The White House said the United States had been informed in advance of the incursion and urged Turkey to limit the operation to "precise targeting" of the PKK rebels hiding there. Turkish TV said 3,000 to 10,000 soldiers had entered Iraq, but Iraq's foreign minister and a senior military official with coalition forces based in Baghdad denied it was a major operation, saying only a few hundred troops were involved.

The European Union repeated its call for Turkey, which is seeking EU membership, to refrain from any disproportionate military action.

"The Turkish Armed Forces, which attach great importance to Iraq's territorial integrity and stability, will return home in the shortest time possible after its goals have been achieved," the General Staff said in a statement posted on its Web site. The General Staff did not specify the size of the operation. A military source based in southeast Turkey told Reuters: "Thousands of troops have crossed the border and thousands more are waiting at the border to join them if necessary."

A PKK spokesman said rebels were battling Turkish troops. "There are severe clashes. Two Turkish soldiers have been killed and eight wounded. There are no PKK casualties,"

Ahmed Danees, head of foreign relations for the PKK, told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location in northern Iraq. It was not possible to independently verify his statement. Iraq's foreign minister played down the operation. "There has not been any major incursion or land invasion ... What is going on is around a few hundred Turkish forces have crossed the border looking for the PKK or their bases,"

Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters by telephone. A senior military officer with U.S.-led coalition forces based in Baghdad made a similar estimate of the number of troops involved. "A few hundred, at most," the source said. Earlier, Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the operation was understood to be of "limited duration" and aimed solely at PKK fighters in the area. BUSH INFORMED Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he had briefed U.S. President George W. Bush by telephone on the land offensive, which began at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Thursday.

NATO member Turkey says it has the right under international law to hit PKK rebels who shelter in northern Iraq and have mounted attacks inside Turkey that have killed scores of troops. Turkey says some 3,000 PKK rebels are based in Iraq. Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since it began an armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. Washington and the EU, like Turkey, classify the PKK as a terrorist organisation. Turkish television said troops, backed by warplanes and Cobra attack helicopters, had moved 25 km (16 miles) inside Iraq.

Television footage showed dozens of tanks moving at high speed near the Iraqi-Turkish border. Turkish financial markets largely shrugged off the news. Turkish opposition politicians applauded the decision. But a senior U.S. State Department official said the land incursion was "not the greatest news".

"A land operation is a whole new level," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza told reporters in Brussels. He said Washington had been cooperating fully with ally Turkey in providing intelligence on PKK positions in northern Iraq since last November to enable the Turkish air force to make pinpoint attacks minimising civilian casualties.

The EU and the United States have in the past raised concerns that a major offensive could destabilise the region, though they have not criticised recent small cross-border raids. "We understand the concerns of Turkey ... but we think this action is not the best response," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told a news conference in Slovenia. A potential flashpoint would be if Iraq's Kurdish Peshmerga security forces were to clash with Turkish troops. Turkey has accused the Peshmerga of sheltering the PKK, analysts said. Turkey's president called Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to inform him of the incursion after it began. Iraq's central government, which has little sway over mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, has repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution. Turkey launched several major land offensives in the 1990s into northern Iraq against the separatist movement.

"Militarily, even 50,000 troops in the 1990s were not able to destroy the PKK, but psychologically this operation could be quite effective. It has taken the PKK by surprise," said Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based expert on Turkish security issues.