The general staff slammed critics as "unfair and base" in a statement posted on its web site late Tuesday, hours after the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) questioned the army's handling of the incursion.

"For the first time in our 24-year struggle against terrorism, the Turkish armed forces are being made the target of such meaningless attacks," the statement said.

"These attacks hurt the determination of the Turkish armed forces to fight terrorism more than the traitors do," it added.

The remarks of MHP and CHP leaders were an unusual blow to the military as both parties are usually its backers in spats with the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party.

MHP chairman Devlet Bahceli accused the army of boosting the image of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) with press releases that spoke of rebel facilities such as "command centres" and "defence posts" that, he argued, portrayed the group as a strong military opponent.

CHP leader Deniz Baykal, meanwhile, cast doubt on assertions that the pullout decision was not made under US pressure and called for explanations.

Turkish forces withdrew from northern Iraq Friday morning, only a day after US President George W. Bush urged Ankara to quickly wrap up the incursion and Defense Secretary Robert Gates personally put pressure on Turkish leaders during a visit to Ankara.

The military has fiercely denied any US role in the pullout, saying that the offensive achieved its objective and a significant part of the forces had already returned home before Gates even arrived in Ankara.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey since 1984.

Its militants take refuge in neighbouring northern Iraq and use camps there as a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets across the border.