AMADIYAH (Iraq), Feb 25: The Turkish army said it had killed 41 more Kurdish rebels on Monday in its cross-border offensive in northern Iraq as the United States renewed calls for restraint and a swift withdrawal.

As the fighting raged, top Turkish leaders joined thousands in Ankara for the funeral of three officers killed in the incursion that, according to army figures, has claimed the lives of 153 rebels and 17 soldiers since Thursday.

“Forty-one terrorists have been neutralised in clashes throughout the day,” the army said in a statement posted on its Website.

Fighters of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) suffered “heavy losses under fire from close quarters” as they tried to escape the advancing Turkish columns, the statement said.

The PKK claims to have killed 81 soldiers.

Warplanes hit around 30 targets deep in northern Iraq on the route of the Turkish advance as helicopter gunships and artillery maintained intense fire throughout the day, the army said.

Security forces in autonomous Kurdish-administered northern Iraq said warplanes bombed areas in and around Hakurk from 2000 GMT Sunday to 1100 GMT Monday until rains, strong winds and a heavy fog settled over the area.

Ankara gave fresh assurances Monday that its forces will retreat once it achieves its objective of flushing out the rebels, but offered no precise timeframe.

“Our struggle there — what we are trying to achieve — will determine the duration” of the operation, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.

He spoke shortly before the White House said it hoped the Turkish incursion would be short-lived and avoid harming civilians.

“We hope that this is just a short-term incursion,” spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.

On Monday, the Turkish army released fresh footage of the offensive, showing soldiers in white camouflage filing into a Sikorsky helicopter taking off from an unidentified base along with Cobra attack helicopters. Soldiers carrying machine guns and assault rifles could be seen advancing in deep snow on rugged hills.

The footage also showed a convoy of military transport vehicles and black-and-white footage of unspecified targets destroyed by air strikes.

Thousands of mourners gathered meanwhile at a mosque in Ankara for the funeral of three officers killed in the operation, two them the two pilots of a helicopter the army said was “destroyed” near Amadiyah, without giving any details.

The PKK said on Sunday that it had downed a Turkish attack helicopter.

“Damn the PKK,” “The motherland will never be divided,” mourners chanted during the ceremony attended by President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, army chief Yasar Buyukanit and other leaders.

Gul postponed a planned four-day trip to Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo this week because of the incursion, a spokesman from his office said on Monday.—AFP