BAGHDAD – Iraq's prime minister says he has ordered the military to take full control of the country's borders amid escalating tensions and Turkish threats of an incursion into Iraq.
Haider al-Abadi says troops will prevent Turkey's Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, to use Iraq for cross-border attacks against Turkey.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday if PKK do not vacate Iraqi regions of Sinjar and Qandil, it would be "inevitable" for Ankara to remove them.
Al-Abadi's statement says he reassured his Turkish counterpart, Binali Yildirim, in a telephone conversation that he rejects any "violation" against Turkey through Iraqi territory.
It says Yildrim assured al-Abadi that Turkey won't "launch operations without Iraqi government consent."
PKK, which has been fighting Ankara since 1984, maintains bases in northern Iraq.
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