Turkish troops clash with Kurdish rebels in Iraq

Turkish forces pressed ahead with ground operations against Kurdish rebels in Iraq today after the military reported that five troops and several dozen rebels had been killed in the cross-border fighting.

The US-backed Iraqi government said Turkey had assured it that the operation, Ankara’s first major ground incursion against Kurdish rebel bases in nearly a decade, would target only rebels who have staged hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets from hideouts in northern Iraq.