Baghdad fears that a prolonged Turkish incursion into northern Iraq could trigger clashes on its lands, the country's national security adviser said today.
Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said fighting between Turkish troops and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces could have "very serious consequences" for a part of Iraq that has been relatively stable compared with the rest of the country.
Ankara launched a ground incursion on Thursday in a remote part of Iraq's largely autonomous region of Kurdistan to hunt down Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels. The PKK uses the area as a base to stage attacks inside Turkey in pursuit of its goal of a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey.
A Kurdish security official said Turkish troops and PKK rebels clashed during the night in the Amadiya area, 6 miles (10km) south of the border. He did not know if there had been any fighting on today.
He said the Turkish military had shelled PKK targets today, after launching several air strikes overnight.
So far the battle-hardened Peshmerga have stayed on the sidelines of the Turkish military operation, which is taking place in a sparsely populated mountainous region. Kurdish officials regard the area as outside their control.
While Iraqi Kurds have little sympathy for the aims of the PKK, there is widespread anger over the incursion.The leadership of Iraqi Kurdistan has said any targeting of Kurdish civilians would result in "massive resistance" by its Peshmerga forces, which have been put on a state of alert.
Turkey says it is carrying out a limited operation against the PKK, which it blames for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since it began its armed struggle in 1984.
Turkish government spokesman Cemil Cicek said Turkish troops would withdraw once they had completed their mission.