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Ankara: Turkey has withdrawn the 300 troops which crossed the border into Iraq on Tuesday, claiming it inflicted ‘heavy losses’ on Kurdish separatists.
A Turkish military statement said that a "A small-scale operation conducted by ground troops as part of hot pursuit...dealt a heavy blow.”
Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan added that his government would continue to do "whatever is necessary" to counter Kurdish rebels.
Last Sunday, Turkish warplanes bombed several villages inside Iraq targeting what Ankara said were rear-bases of the rebels.
The raids sparked a diplomatic incident, with the head of Iraq's Kurdish regional government cancelled a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
White House press secretary Dana Perino, said: "The PKK is a threat to Turkey, to Iraq and to the United States. And so we continue to share information, share intelligence."
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