Twelve Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past two days in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
PKK camp in Kandil, Iraq © Mena Today
Twelve Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past two days in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
The military carried out air strikes on PKK targets, “neutralising” at least 13 PKK militants on Saturday in ongoing clashes, the ministry said in a statement on social messaging platform X.
Turkey typically uses the term "neutralised" to mean killed. The ministry also said seven militants had been killed on Friday.
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.
Turkey regularly carries out air strikes in neighbouring Iraq as part of its offensive against PKK militants based there.
Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Huseyin Hayatsever; editing by Jason Neely
Turkish authorities detained 109 people, including opposition party members and a former mayor, on Tuesday in Izmir, the Anadolu state news agency said, expanding a months-long legal crackdown on the opposition that had been focused on Istanbul.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) could start handing over its weapons "within days", a spokesman for Turkey's ruling AK Party said on Tuesday, the clearest sign yet that efforts to secure the outlawed group's disarmament may be nearing a breakthrough.
Turkish authorities on Monday detained three cartoonists over a satirical drawing published by weekly magazine Leman that seemed to depict Prophets Moses and Muhammad shaking hands in the sky, while missiles flew below in a scene resembling war.
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