Iraq says two border guards killed in clash with PKK militants

Two Iraqi border guards were killed on Friday during a clash with fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Iraq's interior ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry said they had come "under gunfire by terrorist elements belonging to the banned organisation".

It said a third border guard was injured in the clash, which took place near Zakho, a town on the border with Turkey.

The border guards were Iraqi Kurds and the clash occurred after the PKK fighters were denied passage through an Iraqi Kurdish border post, security sources said.

The PKK - which is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union - took up arms against Turkey in 1984, with the initial aim of creating an independent Kurdish state.

Turkish forces have frequently made incursions into northern Iraq in recent years in an attempt to quash the PKK militants.