ANKARA (Sputnik) – Two Turkish soldiers were fatally wounded during an operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist group, in the eastern Agri province near the border with Iran on Saturday, the Defence Ministry said.
“As a result of a clash with members of the terrorist organisation (PKK) who tried to enter [Turkey] from Iran on August 29 in the Dogubeyazit region of the Agri province, two of our soldiers were injured. They were immediately taken to the hospital, but, despite all the measures taken, they died”, the ministry said.
Turkey has launched several security operations against the PKK in the country’s southern and eastern regions over the past two months.
In a separate statement, the Turkish Defence Ministry said that the country’s military neutralised five PKK members during an operation in northern Iraq.
Northern Iraq is the Kurdish-populated region that Ankara regularly launches attacks on, as designates the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a terrorist group.
Turkey has been fighting the PKK, which seeks to establish a Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, since the early 1980s. The PKK and Ankara signed a ceasefire agreement in 2013, but it collapsed two years later over several terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK militants. Since PKK military bases are located in northern Iraq, Ankara regularly conducts land and air operations in the region.
In mid-August, the Iraqi security forces also reported that at least two officers of the country’s border guard had been killed in an attack by a Turkish UAV. In response, the Iraqi authorities cancelled a visit of Turkish Defenсe Minister Hulusi Akar to Baghdad and summoned the Turkish ambassador to the Iraqi capital.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
