Though the statement did not say the Turkish army entered into Iraq, the army states that it fired at a group consisting of about fifty rebels. The Turkish parliament in October had allowed the military to launch attack operations into Iraq to fight the PKK. Attacks by the PKK have increased in Turkey.
But Turkey has been urged by both the United States and Iraq not to carry out the threat of launching attacks into Northern Iraq which is occupied by the Kurds.
Periodically, the Turkish military shelled suspected rebel positions in Iraq. The military have crossed the border at times in fresh pursuit of the PKK rebels.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the day before on Friday that the cabinet authorized the military to launch operations across the order. They would not need to refer back for approval.
Turkey’s government has been under intense pressure from both the public and the media to respond to the attacks by the PKK. There is an estimated three-thousand PKK members in Northern Iraq. Local Kurdish authorities have been accused of aiding the PKK.