ANKARA (AFP) — The Turkish government authorised the army this week to carry out a cross-border strike against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday. "We made a decision at the cabinet meeting on November 28 and, with the president's approval, the Turkish armed forces were authorised regarding a cross-border operation," Erdogan told reporters in televised remarks.
He did not give any indication whether such an operation was imminent.
Faced with mounting violence, the government last month secured a parliamentary approval to order a cross-border military operation, if necessary, to crack down on separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants taking refuge in neighbouring northern Iraq.
Senior Turkish and US military commanders held two rounds of talks in Ankara last week to discuss joint efforts against the PKK, including enhanced intelligence-sharing on rebel movements.
Turkish-US work on intelligence-sharing "is continuing in harmony," Erdogan said.
Keen to head off a large-scale Turkish cross-border operation, the United States and the Iraqi Kurds, who run northern Iraq, have agreed to step up measures to curb the PKK.
After talks with Erdogan at the White House in early November, US President George W. Bush called the PKK a common enemy and promised to provide Turkey with real-time intelligence on rebel movements.
Bush's pledge was largely seen as tacit US approval for limited cross-border Turkish strikes, mainly air raids, against PKK targets in northern Iraq.