SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Two Turkish Soldiers were killed in the Kurdistan Region amid an operation launched by the Turkish army against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), state-owned Anadolu Agency said Saturday.
Anadolu cited the Turkish Ministry of Defense as saying that “Two Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Iraq where the Turkish army launched an operation to clear the area of terrorists, on Friday.”
The soldiers were killed amid exchanging of fires following a clash with the Kurdish militants which the ministry called “separatist terrorists”.
“Infantry Lieutenant Duabey Onur Ozturkmen and Infantry Private Ismail Unal were killed after separatist terrorists opened fire at the Operation Claw-Lock zone,” Anadolu quoted the ministry as saying.
Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock in April to target the PKK’s positions in the Kurdistan Region’s Metina, Zap, and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border.
The PKK launched an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, maintaining most of its bases in the Kurdistan Region border areas. It is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.
