By Paul de Bendern
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish troops have crossed intonorthern Iraq in their hunt for Kurdish PKK guerrillas, themilitary said on Friday, but the United States and the EuropeanUnion urged Ankara to keep the campaign limited.
The White House said the United States had been informed inadvance of the incursion and urged Turkey to limit theoperation to "precise targeting" of the PKK rebels hidingthere.
Turkish TV said 3,000 to 10,000 soldiers had entered Iraq,but Iraq's foreign minister and a senior military official withcoalition forces based in Baghdad denied it was a majoroperation, saying only a few hundred troops were involved.
The European Union repeated its call for Turkey, which isseeking EU membership, to refrain from any disproportionatemilitary action.
"The Turkish Armed Forces, which attach great importance toIraq's territorial integrity and stability, will return home inthe 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 theoperation.
A military source based in southeast Turkey told Reuters:"Thousands of troops have crossed the border and thousands moreare 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 beenkilled and eight wounded. There are no PKK casualties," AhmedDanees, head of foreign relations for the PKK, told Reuters bysatellite 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 forceshave 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 forcesbased in Baghdad made a similar estimate of the number oftroops involved. "A few hundred, at most," the source said.
Earlier, Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, a U.S. militaryspokesman in Baghdad, said the operation was understood to beof "limited duration" and aimed solely at PKK fighters in thearea.
BUSH INFORMED
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he had briefedU.S. President George W. Bush by telephone on the landoffensive, which began at 7 p.m. (5 p.m. British time) onThursday.
NATO member Turkey says it has the right underinternational law to hit PKK rebels who shelter in northernIraq and have mounted attacks inside Turkey that have killedscores of troops. Turkey says some 3,000 PKK rebels are basedin Iraq.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000people since it began an armed struggle for a Kurdish homelandin southeast Turkey in 1984. Washington and the EU, likeTurkey, classify the PKK as a terrorist organisation.
Turkish television said troops, backed by warplanes andCobra attack helicopters, had moved 25 km (16 miles) insideIraq. Television footage showed dozens of tanks moving at highspeed 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 landincursion was "not the greatest news".
"A land operation is a whole new level," Deputy AssistantSecretary of State Matthew Bryza told reporters in Brussels.
He said Washington had been cooperating fully with allyTurkey in providing intelligence on PKK positions in northernIraq since last November to enable the Turkish air force tomake pinpoint attacks minimising civilian casualties.
The EU and the United States have in the past raisedconcerns that a major offensive could destabilise the region,though they have not criticised recent small cross-borderraids.
"We understand the concerns of Turkey ... but we think thisaction is not the best response," EU foreign policy chiefJavier Solana told a news conference in Slovenia.
A potential flashpoint would be if Iraq's Kurdish Peshmergasecurity forces were to clash with Turkish troops. Turkey hasaccused the Peshmerga of sheltering the PKK, analysts said.
Turkey's president called Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, aKurd, to inform him of the incursion after it began.
Iraq's central government, which has little sway overmainly Kurdish northern Iraq, has repeatedly called for adiplomatic solution.
Turkey launched several major land offensives in the 1990sinto northern Iraq against the separatist movement.
"Militarily, even 50,000 troops in the 1990s were not ableto destroy the PKK, but psychologically this operation could bequite effective. It has taken the PKK by surprise," said GarethJenkins, an Istanbul-based expert on Turkish security issues.
(Additional reporting by Michael Holden and Mariam Karounyin Baghdad, Gareth Jones and Selcuk Gokoluk in Ankara, PaulTaylor in Brussels, Mark John in Brdo; Editing by ElizabethPiper)
