Turkish security officials say a Kurdish rebel killed seven soldiers in an attack on an army outpost in eastern Turkey Monday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called on Turkey not to send troops into northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish rebels.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has warned Turkey against staging cross-border raids against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. Mr. Maliki said Saturday he will not allow Iraq's largely peaceful Kurdish region to become a battleground.

Suspected Kurdish guerrillas set off a remote controlled bomb on Friday as a convoy of the police chief of an eastern city was passing, local media reported.

Fears are growing that Turkey may take unilateral military action in northern Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK, whose fighters have been staging cross-border attacks.

Last week Turkey's top general called for military action against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. But Iraqi Kurdish officials say a political solution, not a military one, is what is needed to settle this decades-old issue. From the capital of northern Iraq's Kurdistan Region, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more.

The European Union has urged Turkey to peacefully resolve its differences with Iraq, following a call by Turkey's top general for a military incursion into Iraq to pursue Turkish Kurd rebels.

Turkey's top general has called for military operations in northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels hiding there. But Yasar Buyukanit, the head of the Turkish military's General Staff, said a political decision was needed before any such cross-border operation could be made.

The Iraqi Kurdish leader has again warned Turkey not to interfere in northern Iraq, saying Iraqi Kurds would retaliate by interfering in Kurdish areas in Turkey if that happened. Massoud Barzani spoke Tuesday in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's largely autonomous northern Kurdish region.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan today warned Iraqi Kurdish leader Mas'ud Barzani not to threaten Turkey, saying the price for doing that would be "very high." The warning comes shortly after the announcement of a major Turkish military effort targeting Kurdish guerrillas near the Iraqi border.