Turkish warplanes and troops attacked Kurdish rebels inside Iraq this week, security sources have claimed, but Ankara wants to hold back from any major incursion for now and give diplomacy a chance.
Turkey moved more troops to the mountainous border, keeping up pressure on Baghdad to honour promises to crack down on an estimated 3,000 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who use the region as a base.
A protest against PKK attacks in the village of Kasrik on the Turkey-Iraq border.
Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a series of sorties between Sunday and Tuesday evening in which Turkish warplanes flew 20 km (13 miles) into Iraq and some 300 ground troops advanced about 10 km.
"Further 'hot pursuit' raids into northern Iraq can be expected, though none have taken place so far today (Wednesday)," a military official said.
Thirty-four PKK rebels were killed in the sorties, he said, adding all Turkish troops involved in the operations were now back in Turkey.
But Abdul Rahman Jaderji, a PKK spokesman in northern Iraqí, claims there has been no direct fighting between the two sides since clashes on Sunday in which 12 soldiers were killed.
Baghdad has pledged to act against the rebels. A Turkish official today quoted Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as saying Iraq might hand over PKK militants to Turkey. Mr Talabani had previously ruled out any such move despite Turkish appeals.
The official described a planned visit to Ankara tomorrow of an Iraqi delegation headed by National Security Minister Shirwan al Waeli, as a "final chance" for diplomacy.
Washington and Baghdad fear a major Turkish incursion into northern Iraq could destabilise the whole region. But Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government is under heavy public pressure to take tough action, especially since Sunday's deaths.
Ankara is sceptical about Baghdad's ability to crack down on the PKK in northern Iraq, where the central government has little clout. And the publication of photographs said to show eight Turkish soldiers captured by the PKK has added to pressure on Ankara to act.
"We are reinforcing our troops near the border at Silopi and Uludere with men drawn from other parts of the country," a military source told Reuters in southeast Turkey on Wednesday.
Turkey, which has Nato's second biggest army, has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships, along the mountainous border in preparation for a possible large-scale strike.
Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.