Turkey’s army said it entered northern Iraq on Saturday to tackle up a group of up to 60 Kurdish rebels, a day after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s Cabinet authorised a cross-border operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
It was not clear whether the incursion was a major operation by Nato member Turkey aimed at destroying bases of the PKK.
A spokesperson for Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said there had been no incursion by Turkish troops into the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
The Turkish army said on its website that a group of 50 to 60 PKK rebels had been spotted inside Iraq’s borders.
”An intense intervention was made on the group and it was detected that the terrorist group had suffered heavy casualties,” it said.
The army said it could step up its ”intervention” in the region if this was needed.
The White House and State Department in Washington had no immediate comment on Turkey’s military operation.
Turkey has amassed up to 100 000 troops near the mountainous border, backed up by tanks, artillery and warplanes, for a possible strike into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq.
Ankara has made many threats of military action but, under heavy United States pressure, has so far shown restraint. Washington fears a large-scale operation could destabilise the most stable part of Iraq and possibly the wider region.
Erdogan said before the army statement that he hoped to get the ”most effective” result from an operation.
”Our armed forces were authorised as of November 28. We will watch and follow the process after this,” Erdogan said.
Turkey’s Parliament approved a resolution on October 17 giving the government the legal basis to order cross-border military operations if and when it deemed them necessary.
The resolution, approved by an overwhelming majority of lawmakers, followed a series of deadly PKK attacks on Turkish security forces that fanned an angry wave of nationalism across Turkey, a Nato member that also wants to join the European Union. — Reuters