Turkey says two soldiers killed in Kurdistan Region, blames PKK

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the Kurdistan Region on Sunday, the Turkish defense ministry announced, blaming the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), days after a man allegedly affiliated with the party was fatally shot in Sulaimani.

The Turkish defense said that two infantry sergeants were killed in the “Claw-Lock operations area” in the Kurdistan Region, as a result of the explosion of a handmade bomb. Turkey blamed the PKK for the attack. The group has not made any comment regarding the incident. 

The Claw-Lock operation was a cross-border military operation of Turkish armed forces in 2019, to eradicate PKK on the borders between Turkey and Kurdistan Region, in Duhok's Metina, Zap, Avashin, and Basyan areas.

Several hours later, Turkey said it killed seven members of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria. Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK. The attack was not reported by the YPG. 

The operations come two days after a member of the Mesopotamian Workers’ Association, which is allegedly affiliated with PKK, was killed in Sulaimani. Firat News Agency (ANF), which is a media outlet linked to PKK pointed fingers at the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of being behind the killing. Despite having strong ties to Turkey, the KDP has constantly denied such accusations.

PKK rarely comments on the number of strikes and casualties announced by the Turkish defense ministry.

Turkey and PKK have been at war since the inception of the Kurdish military group in the late 70s of last century. They had a brief two-year ceasefire period, as the Turkish government and the PKK sat down during the “peace process” in 2013. The conflict started again as the peace talks fell apart in 2015.