Only "few hundred" Turk troops said in N.Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Only a "few hundred" Turkish soldiers are taking part in an operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a senior military officer with coalition forces based in Baghdad said on Friday.

"Much less than a single battalion -- a few hundred, at most -- (of) Turkish soldiers have actually entered Iraq as we have the ability to see what is happening," the officer, who declined to be identified, said in a statement to Reuters.

A senior Turkish military source earlier told Reuters that thousands of Turkish troops had crossed the border into Iraq to hunt down Kurdish PKK guerrillas in the largely autonomous region of Kurdistan.

But the coalition military officer in Baghdad said the incursion was on a much smaller scale.

"On the reported numbers coming into Iraq of 10,000, much less than a single battalion -- a few hundred, at most -- Turkish soldiers have actually entered Iraq as we have the ability to see what is happening," he said in a statement to Reuters.

"They are there to conduct a limited objective operation strictly in a PKK-controlled area of the mountains (near) the border."

(Reporting by Michael Holden)