ANKARA- President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey had begunoperations in Iraq’s Sinjar region, an area where it has threatened amilitary incursion, two days after sources said Kurdish PKK militants wouldwithdraw from the area.

“We said we would go into Sinjar. Now operations have begun there. Thefight is internal and external,” Erdogan told a crowd in the Black Seaprovince of Trabzon, without elaborating on what operations he wasreferring to.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command denied that any foreign forces had crossedthe border into Iraq.

“The operations command confirmed that the situation in Nineveh, Sinjar andthe border areas was under the control of Iraqi security forces and thereis no reason for troops to cross the Iraqi border into those areas,” itsaid in a statement.

Sources in Sinjar said there was no unusual military activity in the areaon Sunday.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has waged an insurgency against theTurkish state for decades. President Tayyip Erdogan said last week theywere creating a new base in Sinjar, and that Turkish forces would attack ifnecessary.

Sources in northern Iraq said on Friday the PKK would withdraw from Sinjar,where it gained a foothold in 2014 after coming to the aid of the Yazidiminority community, who were under attack by Islamic State militants.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Unionand the United States, has for decades been based in Iraq’s Qandil mountainrange, near the border with Iran.

Turkish troops and their rebel allies swept into northwest Syria’s Afrintown this month, the culmination of an eight-week campaign to drive SyrianKurdish YPG fighters from the region. Turkey sees the YPG as terrorists andan extension of the outlawed PKK. – Agencies