BAGHDAD, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A Turkish incursion into northern Iraq will not stop Kurdish rebel attacks, Iraq's government said on Saturday, pointing out that similar operations in the past had failed to wipe out the guerrillas.

Turkish troops backed by warplanes have crossed into northern Iraq in pursuit of rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who use the region as a launchpad for attacks on southern Turkey.

"We understand completely the size of the threat Turkey faces, but military operations will not solve the PKK crisis," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told a news conference in Baghdad.

"Turkey has tried the military solution, but that has not yielded any long-lasting results," he said.

Turkey's government and military have come under domestic pressure to crush the PKK after a series of deadly attacks on their troops late last year.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since it began its armed struggle in 1984. Washington and the EU, like Turkey, classify the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

Turkish news reports say between 3,000 and 10,000 troops are involved in the northern Iraq operation, which began on Thursday night. But Dabbagh challenged this figure on Saturday.

"Information confirms there is not a great number, that the number of Turkish troops that have crossed the Iraqi border is less than 1,000. The operation is very limited," he said.

A senior military officer with the coalition forces in Baghdad said on Friday that only a "few hundred" Turkish troops had crossed the border into Iraq.

Turkish troops shelled targets in the region for more than two hours early on Saturday, said the director of Iraq's border guard command in Dahuk, Brigadier-General Hussein Tamar. He knew of no casualties.

The International Organization for Migration said in an email to Reuters that no one had been displaced by the Turkish operation, but on Friday the Iraqi Red Crescent said fewer than 100 people had been displaced from two villages. (Reporting by Mohammed Abbas, additional reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Sami Aboudi)

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