ANKARA, TURKEY — By an overwhelming margin, Turkey's parliament on Wednesday authorized military raids into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels who have attacked Turkish targets.
The vote added to rising tensions in the region, with Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, going on high alert, although senior Turkish officials indicated that no invasion was imminent.
Ignoring pleas for restraint from Washington, Baghdad and other capitals, Turkish lawmakers approved the request from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the authority to send counter-terrorism troops into Iraq at any time during the next year.
The measure passed 507 to 19, with most of the opposing votes coming from Kurdish members of the parliament. Lawmakers broke into applause when the results were announced.
"We Are Going Into Iraq!" was the banner headline of the ATV television station.
"We are at the point where our patience has run out," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said in the parliament.
Erdogan and other senior officials indicated, however, that the vote did not mean a swift invasion.
The government is hoping the threat will pressure Iraqi and U.S. forces to act against guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who have been attacking Turkish targets from bases in northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region.
On Oct. 7, Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers in southeast Turkey, one of their deadliest attacks.
Turkey has been staging airstrikes and limited operations against rebel positions in northern Iraq and many believe it can continue to do so unfettered by international interference, at least until winter weather makes the mountainous region especially treacherous.
At a news conference, President Bush for the first time publicly acknowledged that Turkish troops already are in northern Iraq to monitor PKK activities. Although their presence has been widely known, senior U.S. officials have been reluctant to acknowledge that they are based on the Iraqi side of the border.
A senior military official in Baghdad said there are 1,500 to 1,700 Turkish troops in Iraq, divided into three battalions.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the Turkish mission is limited to monitoring PKK activities and the troops are not normally involved in offensive military operations.
