Three Turkish soldiers killed, seven wounded in clash with PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan
Kurdish PKK female guerrilla, 2019. Photo: PKK/ANF
ANKARA,— Three Turkish soldiers were killed and seven were wounded in a clash with Kurdish militants in Iraqi Kurdistan region, the Turkish defence ministry said Sunday.
The statement came after Turkey on Friday launched the third phase of an operation begun in May to root out fighters of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in the region.
It did not specify the location of the clashes.
Turkey began conducting a ground offensive and bombing campaign against the PKK in the region in May.
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.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | AFP
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