By Gareth Jones and Paul de Bendern
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey pulled its troops out of northernIraq on Friday, ending a major offensive against Kurdish PKKrebels that Washington feared could spread conflict through theregion.
A statement by Turkey's armed forces General Staff deniedany foreign influence on the decision, which came a day afterU.S President George W. Bush urged a swift end to offensive.
"There was no question of completely liquidating theterrorist organisation, but Turkey has shown the organisationthat northern Iraq is not a safe haven for them," the GeneralStaff said.
Turkey sent thousands of soldiers into remote, mountainousnorthern Iraq on February 21 to crush rebels of the outlawedKurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who use the region as a base forattacks on Turkish territory.
"It was determined that the aims set at the start of theoperation had been achieved," the General Staff said in astatement. "Our units returned to their bases (in Turkey) onthe morning of February 29."
Announcing the withdrawal ahead of the General Staff, IraqiForeign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters in Baghdad thathis government welcomed the move.
Turkey's political and military leaders had pledged theoperation would continue for as long as necessary but U.S.Defence Secretary Robert Gates, on a brief trip to Ankara onThursday, urged a short and carefully targeted campaign.
Washington, like Ankara and the EU, brands the PKK aterrorist organisation, and has been supplying intelligence tothe Turkish military on the PKK in Iraq.
PKK WEAKENED
Turkey's military said it had killed 240 rebels in theeight-day ground offensive and suffered the loss of 27soldiers. The PKK said it has killed more than 130 Turkishtroops but only five rebels had died. It was not possible toverify the figures.
Turkey had said the ground operation, backed by warplanes,tanks, long-range artillery and attack helicopters, wouldcontinue until PKK bases were erased and the rebels no longerposed a threat to Turkey.
The withdrawal without apparently rooting out all PKKbases, especially in the Qandil mountains, will raise questionsabout whether the rebel movement has been fatally wounded.
Turkish leaders have been under domestic pressure to crackdown on the estimated 3,000 PKK members who stage deadlycross-border attacks against Turkish targets.
The PKK in northern Iraq claimed victory over the Turkishmilitary.
"Because of the fierce battles between the PKK and theTurkish forces, the Turkish forces have withdrawn," said AhmedDanees, the PKK's foreign relations spokesman in northern Iraq.
Iraqi Kurds, long suspicious of neighbouring Turkey, fearit is seeking to undermine the autonomy of Iraq's oil-richKurdistan region. Ankara says it wants only to end terrorism.
The PKK has been fighting for decades for ethnic rights andself-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
But Turkish pressure has gradually squeezed it out of thecountry, forcing it to base itself in mountains of northernIraq that lie outside the control of the semi-autonomousnorthern Iraqi Kurdish administration.
Ankara blames the separatist PKK movement for the deaths ofnearly 40,000 people since 1984.
A senior Turkish military source said earlier this weekthat around 10,000 troops had been involved in the operation inIraq, which mainly centred on the Zap valley.
(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Baghdad andDaren Butler in Istanbul; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
