WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is aware of Turkey’s deployment of hundreds of Turkish soldiers to northern Iraq but its move is not part of the U.S.-led coalition’s activities, two U.S. defense officials said on Friday.

A senior Turkish official said earlier the soldiers in the region were there to train (Kurdish) peshmerga fighters. Turkey has close relations with the Kurdish autonomous zone of northern Iraq, though it views Syrian Kurdish groups across the border as hostile to its interests.