The Government of Turkey has confirmed the death of four soldiers in clashes registered on Sunday in northern Iraq with alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Turkish Ministry of Defense has published photos of the deceased soldiers on its Twitter social network account, as part of an increase in operations against the group in recent months.
After that, he stressed in another message that “two PKK terrorists have been neutralized” in northern Iraq. “We will not leave the blood of new martyrs unanswered. We will continue to fight tirelessly to forcefully punish terrorists,” he pointed out.
Turkey announced in mid-April the start of a new offensive against the PKK in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, which was described by Baghdad as a “national security threat”, given that the operations they were being coordinated.
Bilateral tensions flared in July after the death of nine Iraqi tourists in a Turkish bombardment in Zakho, prompting Baghdad to demand that Ankara “officially apologize” and “withdraw its military forces” from Iraqi territory.
The Turkish Army has intensified its operations against the PKK both in the country and in northern Iraq – where the formation has numerous bases – since the ceasefire between the Government and the armed group was broken in July 2015 .
Source: Europa Press
