Several killed in Turkey, PKK clashes in Sidakan
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Clashes erupted between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) when a group of fighters attacked a Turkish base early Sunday in northeast Erbil province, leading to at least four casualties within the PKK ranks, Sidakan's district mayor told Rudaw.
A number of PKK fighters attacked a Turkish army base in Erbil's Sidakan district and the soldiers retaliated, sparking clashes that lasted for three hours, according to Ihsan Chalabi, the mayor of the district.
The bodies of four PKK fighters were left in Halkeran village, while Turkish helicopters evacuated their wounded soldiers.
The Turkish defense ministry on Monday said that they had killed nine PKK members in different areas in the Kurdistan Region, but did not specify the number of deaths in the Sidakan clashes.
Last month, Ankara launched a fresh anti-PKK operation, targeting the armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. The operation, dubbed Claw-Lock, is an air and ground assault that heavily focuses on mountainous border areas where the PKK maintains a presence.
In their latest figure on Sunday, Turkey's defense ministry claimed that 95 PKK fighters have been "neutralized" in the operation thus far.
The PKK said that at least 427 Turkish soldiers have been "punished" since the start of the operation, and 88 others have been injured, while confirming the death of 15 of its soldiers.
Turkey’s army often use the term neutralize to refer to combatants killed or injured on the battlefield, while the PKK uses the term punished.
Both the PKK and Ankara often release exaggerated death tolls of the other side.
The recent Turkish incursion has been widely condemned by Iraqi officials, labeling it as a "hostile" and "provocative" violation of the country's sovereignty.
The decades-long conflict between Turkey and the PKK has left 212 villages across Erbil province abandoned, with a staggering total of 504 abandoned villages across the entire Kurdistan Region.