The Turkish military confirmed today that eight of its soldiers were still missing after an ambush by Kurdish militants a day earlier that left at least 12 Turkish soldiers dead and touched off a major escalation in Turkey-Iraq tensions.“Despite all search efforts, no contact has been established with eight missing personnel since shortly after the armed attack on the military unit,” the military said in a statement.

The attack early Sunday brought fears that Turkey would retaliate immediately by sending troops across the border into Iraq, and today Turkey continued to bolster its forces on the border, including both land and air units.

However, Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Sunday that he had delayed a decision about retaliation, after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had personally intervened. The foreign minister, Ali Babacan, said today during an official visit in Kuwait that all political means would be tried before a military operation, NTV television reported.