Amidst a surprise visit by the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Iraq on Tuesday, over 300 Turkish troops crossed their border with Iraq on Monday night following Turkish Parliament’s permission to the government to send soldiers into the neighboring nations to flush out the rebel Kurdish outfits.  

According to reports, the Kurdish troops are lightly armed and have already penetrated nearly 3 kms into Iraqi territory.

Prior to the Turkish intrusion into Iraq, warplanes from Turkey bombard villages in the mountainous Gali Rash region where rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK activists have taken shelter during the last weekend.

While the bombing led Iraq to lodge complaints with Iraq as well as the US, the latter which still has around 1,55,000 troops in that country had warned the Iraqi authorities of the air strikes much in advance.

While the Turkish President Abdullah Gul has said his country’s army was doing "what is necessary", the Iraqi Kurdish regional authorities have criticized the invasion.

On the other hand, a spokesman of the Iraqi Kurdish ‘peshmerga’ security forces said that the Turkish troops were currently located in the Seeda Kan area which is a triangular plot lying between Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

The Turkish offensive comes in the wake of complaints that the Kurdish rebels have been frequenting their bordering areas and attacking civilians and soldiers alike.

There have been reports of several casualties in this regard during the past few months. Although the US had urged Ankara to refrain from invading Iraq and resolve the issue through dialogue, Turkey decided otherwise.

Meanwhile, the Turkish soldiers and the Kurdish guerrillas were reported to be engaged in a bitter battle near the Turkish border, but there has been no report of any casualties.

The news of the fighting came soon after the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived at the disputed Iraqi city of Kirkuk. However, official sources in Ankara said that the intrusion was not a major one and there is no possibility of expanding the offensive.

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