Turkey Denies Troops Entered Iraq

Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who attack Turkey from bases there, three Turkish security officials said.

Turkey's foreign minister denied its troops had entered Iraq.

However, the senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, characterized the raid as a "hot pursuit" raid that was limited in scope.

They told The Associated Press it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

"It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands," one of the officials told the AP by telephone. The official is based in southeast Turkey, where the military has been battling separatist Kurdish rebels since they took up arms in 1984.

"We can't confirm a thing at this time, but we are looking into it and obviously we are very concerned,"

said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials in Washington told NBC News that Ankara has told the United States that there has been "no Turkish incursion into Iraq."

There was no immediate explanation for the differing statements.

Talk Show America 6/7/2007