SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) said on Wednesday that 15 of its fighters were killed during a Turkish operation in the Gara region, northeast of Duhok.
The Turkish military launched an operation dubbed “Claw-Eagle 2” against the PKK fighters in the Gara region on February 10. Turkey announced the completion of the operation on Sunday.
The PKK-affiliated People’s Defense Center said in a statement that six of its fighters were killed in a camp struck by Turkish warplanes on the Gara mountain.
The fighters which the PKK said had protected the camp where 12 Turkish citizens were held as hostage, the group said.
Nine other PKK fighters were killed in airstrikes and clashes with the Turkish military, according to the statement.
The group also released names of the 12 Turkish citizens which Turkey says kidnapped by the PKK. They included soldiers, policemen and MIT members, the PKK said.
On Sunday, Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the Turkish military had found bodies of 13 Turkish citizens in a cave, who he said were held by the PKK on the Gara mountain.
“All of the terrorists in the cave that martyred our citizens were neutralized,” he said.
The People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the PKK military wing, denied on Sunday it had killed the Turkish citizens.
“The camp was intensively bombed from the air at five o’clock on February 10, followed by a ground attack in which every form of war technology was used,” it said.
Turkey has conducted numerous ground and aerial cross-border offensives into neighboring northern Iraq to attack PKK fighters, who maintains bases in the region.
