Turkish troops have engaged Kurdish PKK rebels in clashes that left scores dead in a major ground offensive into northern Iraq.
Iraq's government said NATO member Turkey should withdraw its troops as soon as possible, and urged the Turkish government in Ankara to sit down with Baghdad for talks to resolve the crisis over the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Baghdad and Washington fear the offensive could further destabilise Iraq.
Ankara launched the cross-border attack on Thursday after months of aerial bombardment of suspected PKK targets in the remote, mountainous region. It accuses rebels of using northern Iraq as a base to stage deadly attacks inside Turkey.
Turkey's General Staff said 33 PKK rebels, including a leader, and eight soldiers died in heavy, close combat in poor weather conditions today. It said at least 112 rebels and 15 soldiers have died since the operation began.
The PKK, which has been battling for decades to create a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey, disputes the figures. It said 47 Turkish troops and two rebels have been killed since Thursday.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan sought to reassure the international community that Turkey's cross-border operation – possibly its largest in a decade – was focused on the PKK and would be limited in duration.
‘Our Iraqi brothers should know that this operation is only to clean the terrorist camps and terrorists,’ Prime Minister Erdogan said.
But Iraq's government said it viewed the military action as ‘a threat to the stability of the region and a violation of Iraq's sovereignty and calls on Turkey to pull its troops from Iraq as soon as possible’.
The Iraqi government has asked for bilateral dialogue between the two governments.
Helicopter shot down
The PKK rebels said they have shot down a Turkish Cobra attack helicopter.
Turkish special forces were parachuted into northern Iraq today as F-16 warplane, Cobra helicopter and artillery fire pounded suspected PKK positions, Turkish media reported.
A senior military source said two brigades made up of 8,000 troops are taking part in the offensive. Turkish media have put the troop numbers at 10,000, but a senior officer with US-led coalition forces in Baghdad said they were less than 1,000.
Washington is sharing intelligence with NATO ally Turkey on PKK movements in Iraq but has urged Ankara to limit the campaign to precise rebel targets and to bring it to a swift conclusion.
The US and the EU fear a prolonged military campaign inside Iraq would raise the risk of serious clashes between Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish forces and also undermine the fragile US-backed government in Baghdad.
The autonomous Iraqi Kurdish administration of northern Iraq has vowed a tough response if civilians come under attack.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey. Turkish military operations in northern Iraq in the 1990s failed to wipe out the guerrillas.
