Turkey faced a chorus of international calls on Monday for restraint in its threat to invade northern Iraq to crush Kurdish separatist rebels, as diplomatic and political efforts to avert a war intensified.

The US, UK and Germany, among other nations, urged Turkey to hold off from an immediate large-scale incursion across the Iraqi border following a weekend attack that killed between 12 and 17 Turkish soldiers in an ambush by PKK Kurdish rebels. The Turkish military said on Monday that eight of its soldiers were still missing following that incident.