ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Seven more Turkish soldiers died on Monday after being exposed to methane gas inside a cave during a search operation in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province, the defense ministry announced, bringing the death toll to twelve.
Ankara on Sunday said that an initial five Turkish officers were killed by methane gas exposure inside a cave in Duhok province while attempting to recover the body of a Turkish officer “killed by terrorists in 2022.”
“Three more of our heroic comrades-in-arms who were affected by methane gas were martyred, increasing the number of martyred personnel to eight,” the defense ministry said on Monday.
In another statement on Tuesday, the defense ministry said that four more soldiers lost their lives, bringing the death toll to 12.
It added that the cave was used by “members of the separatist terrorist organization,” referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara has engaged in a decades-long conflict with that has claimed over 40,000 lives.
In 2022, Ankara launched Operation Claw-Lock, targeting PKK positions in the northern Duhok province along the Turkish border. The stated aim of the operation was to cut off the PKK’s access to mainland Turkey.
On Sunday, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has led a months-long initiative to resolve the deadly decades-long Turkey-PKK conflict, offered condolences over the deaths of the Turkish soldiers, lamenting that “the entire society is paying the price for the long-standing conflict and unresolved issues.”
Earlier in the day, DEM Party officials held a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The pro-Kurdish party cited Ocalan as stating he was “deeply concerned” by the deadly incident.
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially sought an independent Kurdistan but later shifted its focus toward achieving broader political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. The group has been labeled a terrorist organization by Ankara and its allies.
Updated at 11:27 am with new death toll.
