Clashes between Turkish troops and members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq resulted in the killing of six Turkish soldiers and two PKK fighters, amid Turkey’s cross-border operation to eliminate PKK presence in the region.
At least six Turkish soldiers were killed during clashes with outlawed Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
The soldiers were killed by fire from “the separatist terror organization,” it added, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies.
Turkey launched cross-border Operation Claw-Lock in April 2022 to eradicate members of the PKK holed up in mountainous areas along the frontier.
On Wednesday, separate Turkish drone strikes killed two PKK members in northern Iraq, officials in the autonomous Kurdistan region said, following a similar incident on Sunday.
The PKK has waged an insurgency in Turkey since 1984, claiming tens of thousands of lives.
Ankara maintains dozens of military bases in northern Iraq, where it regularly launches operations against PKK fighters.
Katrine Houmøller, with AFP
