The Peoples’ Defence Forces (HPG), the armed wing of the PKK, said they killed one soldier and injured another, and dealt a “crippling blow” to Turkish army installations on Lelikan hill in the Sidakan area of northern Erbil province where the borders of Kurdistan Region, Turkey, and Iran meet.
The HPG launched an attack on Turkish soldiers stationed there on Sunday afternoon, according to their statement, published on Tuesday.
Inside Turkey, HPG claimed to have killed five soldiers during an operation in Diyarbakir on Wednesday. The guerrillas also lost five of their own in the operation, they stated.
Turkey has not confirmed the deaths within their own ranks, but claimed to have “neutralized” 14 PKK fighters in airstrikes on Sunday. The Turkish army uses the word neutralized to refer to those killed, wounded, or otherwise removed from the battlefield. Col. Tamer Zincir told reporters on Monday that they hit PKK guerrillas in a cave in the Zab region of northern Duhok, Anadolu Agency reported.
HPG confirmed the Turkish airstrikes, but denied the casualties.
Turkish jets launched at least eight airstrikes against an alleged PKK position 32 kilometres northeast of Duhok city on Friday morning, a local confirmed to Rudaw, saying that this is the first time the conflict had reached that area.
Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes and military offensives against alleged PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region, where the group has its headquarters. The four-decade long conflict was reignited in 2015 after a peace process broke down.
At least 4,330 people have been killed since July 20, 2015, according to the International Crisis Group, which is tracking the conflict. Those killed include 1,144 state forces, 2,499 PKK fighters, 464 civilians, and 223 unidentified people.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was in Erbil on Monday, but his talks with Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani focused on business and trade ties.
The government in Baghdad has called on Turkish forces to withdraw from Iraqi territory and said no group should use Iraqi land to carry out attacks on its neighbours. The Kurdistan Regional Government has called on the PKK to leave the Region.
