Turkey promises no military operation in Iraq without Baghdad's approval

BAGHDAD, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Turkey assured Iraq that it would not carry out any cross-border military operation in Iraq without permission from the Iraqi government, said the Iraqi Prime Minister's Office Tuesday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi received a phone call from his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim late on Monday, during which the latter pledged that Ankara "would not carry out any operations (in northern Iraq) without the consent of the Iraqi government," said Abadi's office in a statement.

Yildirim also denied any agreement between Iraq and Turkey about cross-border operations in northern Iraq, according to the statement.

Turkey respects Iraq's sovereignty and will not take any action that would violate Iraq's territory, the Turkish prime minister added.

For his part, Abadi confirmed that the Iraqi forces have fully controlled the Iraqi territory, including the border areas with Turkey, and are preventing any foreign militants from crossing the border line.

The phone call came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday announced the beginning of operations to clear the mountainous area of Iraqi Kurdistan region and Sinjar, some 70 km west of Mosul, of militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), banned as a terror group by Ankara.

Turkish forces frequently carry out anti-terror operations, airstrikes and artillery bombardment targeting the positions of the PKK militants, especially on the Qandil mountainous region, the group's main base. Enditem