Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

Turkish F-16 jets prepare to take off from military airbase, in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir in this Nov. 7, 2007 file picture. he Turkish troops which purportedly entered northern Iraqi territories overnight Tuesday, started to pull out from Iraq's Erbil province late Tuesday afternoon.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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    ANKARA, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish army confirmed on Tuesday that it carried out a "small-scale" incursion into northern Iraq to go after a group of outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels who were trying to enter Turkey.

    Turkey's general staff said in a statement posted on its website that its troops crossed "several kilometers" into northern Iraq overnight and heavily pounded the rebels.

    The army didn't give the number of troops which entered Iraq but Turkish private broadcaster NTV reported earlier in the day that at least 300 Turkish troops entered northern Iraqi territories to fight PKK militants.

    The Turkish military has launched several cross-border attacks recently in a bid to fight separatist PKK rebels, who use northern Iraq as a launch pad for attacks against Turkey.

    On Sunday, Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes at some villages near the border in the Qandil mountains, killing at least five PKK members and one woman, and wounding six people, according to a Kurdish security source.

    Security operations are underway in southeastern and eastern Turkey as 100,000 Turkish troops have massed along Turkish-Iraqi borders in preparations for a possible cross-border operation to crush the about 3,000-strong PKK rebels.

    The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade confict.