Ankara: The Turkish army launched a ground offensive into northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish rebels, drawing an angry response today from Iraqi leaders and a call for restraint from Washington.

With Iraqi leaders summoning Turkey s charge affaires in Baghdad to protest against the operation, Turkish leaders were quick to give assurances about the nature and scope of the incursion.

"The target, purpose, size and parameters of this operation are limited," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "Our armed forces will come back in the shortest time possible as soon as they achieve their objectives."

It was the second such incursion confirmed by the military since October, when the government won parliamentary approval to enter Iraq to attack Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants based there.

Turkey charges that an estimated 4,000 PKK rebels are holed up in northern Iraq and use the region as a springboard for attacks on Turkish territory as part of the separatist campaign they launched in 1984.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki telephoned Erdogan after the latest incursion was launched to urge him of "the need to respect Iraq sovereign authority," Maliki s spokesman said in Baghdad.

The Turkish army said the incursion started late Thursday after eight hours of air and artillery strikes on camps of the outlawed (PKK) in the mountainous, snow-bound region.

"Following this successful offensive, a cross-border land operation backed by the Air Force was launched at 7:00 pm (2230 IST)," said a statement posted on the general staff Internet site.

Source : PTI