Turkish President Abdullah Gul reaffirmed on Sunday Turkey's readiness and right to intervene in northern Iraq one day after the Turkish army said it carried out an operation there against Kurdish rebels.
Kurdish officials in Iraq insisted on Sunday that there had been no Turkish military incursion, describing as baseless Ankara's claims that significant losses had been inflicted on Kurdish rebels. "(The army) was granted a mandate. This mandate is being used when (the army) deems it necessary," Gul told reporters before flying to Pakistan for an official visit.
Turkey said it carried out an "intense intervention" against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in northern Iraq on Saturday, sending in special forces after the cabinet authorised the army for cross-border operations.
A Turkish military official said about 100 special forces troops had crossed into Iraq and that long-range artillery and up to six helicopters had bombed a PKK camp after spotting a group of 50-60 rebels 20 km (12 miles) inside the border.
But Jabbar Yawar, a spokesman for Kurdistan's Peshmerga security forces in Iraq, said there had been no incursion or shelling by Turkish forces into northern Iraq. He also said there were no casualties in the area.
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