The soldiers were killed in the Zap Mountain, east of Duhok city, where intense fighting has been ongoing between members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkish soldiers who have set up dozens of outposts inside Iraqi territory.
The Turkish defense ministry did not provide any details of how the soldiers were killed except for stating that they were killed on June 11. They were identified as Fuat Ozer, Gokhan Demir, Omer Yildirim, and Mehmet Ali CAP.
Media outlets affiliated with the PKK said that the fighting took place on top of Black Mountain in Shif Valley, resulting in three Turkish soldiers being killed and one wounded, adding that “intense fighting was ongoing.”
Turkey launched its latest operation dubbed Operation Claw-Lock on April 18 to eradicate the PKK threat, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning “soon there will not be a place called Qandil.”
The rugged mountain range which stretches across the Iran-Iraq border in north of Sulaimani province has been the headquarters of the PKK since the early 1980s when the group established bases there. In total, more than 40,000 civilians, PKK fighters and Turkish soldiers have been killed since 1984 when the PKK launched its first operation against the Turkish army, the second largest within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Since July 2015, when a two and a half year ceasefire broke down, at least 5,850 individuals have been killed in the conflict according to International Crisis Group.
Ankara has used its air power including its deadly drone fleet in recent years at devastating level, killing some of the most senior figures within the PKK. But, dozens of Iraqi-Kurdish civilians have also been killed or wounded in Turkish airstrikes in recent years.
Ankara launched Operation Claw against the PKK in Khakurk in May 2019. This was followed by Operation Claw-Tiger in June 2020. The third edition of the offensive was a ground and air cross-border operation, dubbed Operation Claw-Lightning and Operation Claw-Thunderbolt, launched in April 2021. All of these operations focused on the PKK’s positions in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.
President Erdogan has threatened to launch yet another operation in northern Syria against the Kurdish forces whom he accuses of being linked to the PKK. Erdogan has gone as far as threatening to block the requests by Sweden and Finland to become members of NATO following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, accusing the Nordic countries of harboring PKK members and sympathizers.
Hundreds of people protested in a number of European countries including Finland, Denmark, and Germany against the Turkish operations in the Kurdistan Region and the threat of yet another operation in north Syria.
