Turkish army kills over 80 PKK militants north of Iraq
Turkish warplanes
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Over 80 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants were killed in airstrikes by the Turkish army in northern Iraq, Turkish military said Wednesday.
Turkish Air Forces carried out airstrikes on PKK locations north of Iraq, killing over 80 militants, an official statement by the Turkish military said.
The air raids were carried out Monday in the Asos region north of Iraq, the statement read.
On Friday, the Turkish military said security forces killed 26 PKK militants during operations in Turkey and northern Iraq in one week.
Turkish air forces regularly carry out cross-border air strikes against PKK targets in Iraq.
Ankara designates PKK as a terrorist organization, so do the U.S. and the EU.
PKK has led an armed campaign against Turkey for over three-decade, during which more than 40,000 people were killed.
PKK and Turkish military encounters resumed in July 2015 for the first time since the militia announced a pullout from Turkish territory in 2013. The battles resumed after PKK accused Ankara of failure of protecting Kurds following an Islamic State attack that killed 32 Kurds at a town near the borders with Syria.
Turkey’s military interventions in Iraq and Syria has partially been driven by ana anxiousness to curb the influence of Kurdish militias thought to have links with the PKK.