ANKARA, March 6: Some 200 Turkish military trucks were on their way to the Iraqi border on Thursday, television reports and correspondents said, but the Turkish army denied this was a sign of a cross-border operation.

“All these moves by the Turkish armed forces are preliminary security measures in the army’s own area of responsibility,” the general staff said in a statement.

The tarpaulin-covered Turkish trucks rumbled through the town of Silopi heading towards for the border post of Habur, 15kms farther to the south.

The general staff described the movement as “transfer, training and exercise activities”, denying media reports that the army had reinforced its military presence in neighbouring Kurdish-held northern Iraq.

Meanwhile hundreds of kilometres to the west, dozens of trailer trucks carrying US military vehicles, recently unloaded from US vessels, left Iskenderun, according to television footage.

The US trucks, escorted by police, headed towards Mardin, a town north of the Syrian border, and then carried on eastwards.

The Turkish army said the US activity came in the framework of Ankara’s permission for US army engineers to upgrade several bases and ports in Turkey ahead of a possible war in Iraq.

“All activities carried out by foreigners in our country... are closely monitored and controlled by the armed forces and related authorities,” it added.

Several hundred US military vehicles, including trucks, radio transmission vehicles and other types of troop transporters, were landed at Iskenderun about two weeks ago. —AFP