SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The United States on Sunday condemned the killing of 13 Turkish citizens who Turkey said were “executed” by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region.
The killing, which included military and police personnel, took place during a Turkish military operation in Gara region, 50 km northeast of Duhok.
“The United States deplores the death of Turkish citizens in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq,” Spokesperson of U.S. State Department Ned Price said in a statement.
“If reports of the death of Turkish civilians at the hands of the PKK, a designated terrorist organization, are confirmed, we condemn this action in the strongest possible terms,” he added.
Turkey launched a military operation dubbed “Claw-Eagle 2” against the PKK in the Gara region on February 10 to secure its border and find citizens who had been kidnapped previously, according to Turkish defense minister Hulusi Akar.
Akar said twelve of the kidnapped Turks had been shot in the head and one in the shoulder.
On Sunday, the PKK-affiliated People’s Defense Forces (HPG) denied the claims, saying the prisoners who it was holding, including Turkish intelligence, police and military personnel, had died in airstrikes carried out by Turkey in the Gara region.
“The bombardment, which last for three days, and the fierce battles inside and outside the camp resulted in the death of some of the MIT members, soldiers and policemen we had captured,” the group said in a statement.
“The attack was not aimed at liberating the prisoners of war, but at destroying them,” it said. “The only person responsible for the death of these people is Hulusi Akar. He gave the order for such an attack and has no human feelings.”
In 2017, Turkey’s foreign minister said Ankara was working to bring back citizens he said had been kidnapped by the PKK, after Turkish media reported two Turkish intelligence officers had been captured by the PKK in Iraq.
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, launched its armed insurgency in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
In the last two years Turkey’s fight against the PKK has increasingly focused on northern Iraq, where the group has its stronghold in the Qandil mountains on the Iranian border.
