Turkish Officials Say Troops Enter Iraq

Friends and relatives of Turkish soldier Emrah Kayadelen, wearing letters that read: "We condemn", chant nationalist slogans during his funeral ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, June 6, 2007. In one of the bloodiest attacks this year, Kurdish rebels raided Monday a military outpost in Tunceli province in southeastern Turkey, killing seven Turkish troops and wounding seven others. (AP Photo/Serkan Senturk) (Serkan Senturk - AP)

Two other officials said troops went less than two miles into a remote, mountainous area in Iraq.

An Iraqi Kurd security official in the Shanzinan area said 150 Turkish soldiers occupied a mountain about a half mile inside Iraq for an hour and then left. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 200 other Turks staged a similar cross-border operation around the same time in the nearby Sirzeri area.

It was not immediately clear whether the Kurdish official referred to the same raid cited by the three Turkish officials.

Turkey's private NTV television quoted Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as saying the reports of a cross-border operation were false.

"There is no such thing, no entry to another country. If such a thing happens, then we would announce it," Gul said. "We are in a war with terror. We will do whatever is necessary to fight terrorism."

Several officials at the Pentagon said they had seen nothing to confirm a border crossing by Turkish troops. But one said small numbers of Turkish soldiers occasionally conduct counterinsurgency operations inside Iraq. The officials insisted on speaking anonymously.

The White House also said there had been "no new activity" in northern Iraq. But Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, repeated that Washington remains "concerned about the PKK and the use of Iraq as a safe haven."

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Associated Press writers Jennifer Loven in Rostock, Germany, Katherine Shrader and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Yahya Barzanji in Dahuk, Iraq, contributed to this report.