[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
On Friday, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced the neutralization of 18 “terrorists” from members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) with a raid carried out by Turkish warplanes in the Qandil Mountains region of northern Iraq.
The Turkish Army, from time to time, carries out operations against members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is banned in Turkey, and which it classifies as a terrorist organization. However, despite their claim of combating terrorists, Turkey has not received approval from Iraq to conduct such attacks within their territory.
Baghdad summons Turkish ambassador after PKK airstrikes
[Rudaw] Turkey’s ambassador to Baghdad, Fatih Yildiz, was summoned by the Iraqi foreign ministry on Thursday, a day after Turkish jets attacked two suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq.
Baghdad accused Ankara of violating its airspace, but Turkish officials insisted the strikes were justified under international laws guarding the right to self-defense.
Turkish jets launched two separate strikes on Wednesday – one in the Kurdistan Region’s Rawanduz district and another near a refugee camp in Makhmour, 60 km southwest of Erbil city. Ankara claims it “neutralized” four PKK fighters in Rawanduz, while the PKK put the number at three.
In a statement, Iraq’s foreign ministry said it summoned Ambassador Yildiz on Thursday “on the background of a Turkish army fighter plane violating Iraqi airspace, and bombing a refugee camp near Makhmour that claimed the lives of two women.”
The foreign ministry did not specify whether the women were armed.
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