"Thousands of troops" in N. Iraq: Turkish army source

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has sent two brigades numbering "thousands of troops" into northern Iraq as part of its ground offensive against Kurdish rebels, a senior military source based in southeast Turkey told Reuters on Friday.

Thousands more troops are waiting on the mountainous Turkish-Iraqi border and may join the offensive if required, the source added. A Turkish brigade has up to 5,000 troops.

Earlier Turkish television put the number of troops inside northern Iraq at about 10,000. The military General Staff, in a statement confirming a major cross-border land operation, did not say how many troops were involved.