Turkish soldiers in the Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey, 2018. Photo: hurriyetdailynews.com
ANKARA,— Two Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded on Saturday in a clash with Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK during operations into Iraqi Kurdistan region, Turkey’s defense ministry said.
Six militants, including a woman, were “neutralized” during the operations, the ministry said in a statement. The Turkish army uses the term neutralize when it has killed, captured or wounded combatants
Clashes erupted between Turkish soldiers and the PKK fighters in the Bradost region, northeast of Erbil.
Turkey regularly carries out air strikes on PKK bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, as President Tayyip Erdogan pursues his aim of ending the militant group’s presence near Turkey’s borders.
Turkey has been in full control of Barmeza village, where Saturday’s fighting took place.
In January 2019, Iraqi Kurdish protesters stormed a Turkish base in Shiladze in Duhok province in Iraqi Kurdistan region after a deadly attack by the Turkish army that killed dozens of civilians.
Its mountainous borders with Iraqi Kurdistan Region have been hotspots for clashes. The PKK’s headquarters is in the Qandil district near the borders with Iran and Turkey.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population.
More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.
(With files from Reuters | Agencies)
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