A Turkish drone strike has killed one member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and injured two others in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, according to a statement by the region’s Counter-Terrorism Service on Monday.
The attack took place at a refugee camp in Makhmur, an area situated between Nineveh and Erbil.
The Makhmur camp houses hundreds of families who fled Turkey over the years, and Ankara claims the PKK uses the camp as a base for training fighters and launching attacks against Turkish territory.
The Counter-Terrorism Service confirmed that the drone strike targeted a gathering of PKK members inside the camp on Monday morning.
This latest incident follows a similar drone strike on August 23, when the Turkish military targeted a vehicle in Sulaymaniyah, killing three individuals, including a PKK official.
The Counter-Terrorism Service stated that the Turkish drone hit the vehicle near a village in the Sidakan district of Sulaymaniyah, resulting in the deaths of the official, his driver, and an accompanying individual.
Turkey has been conducting an extended military campaign against PKK fighters in Iraq and Syria. The PKK and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia are both designated as terrorist organizations by Ankara.
The Turkish government has frequently justified its operations as necessary to counter Kurdish insurgents who pose a threat to its national security.
In August, Turkey announced a military cooperation agreement with Iraq that includes the establishment of joint training and command centers aimed at combating Kurdish separatists. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that the agreement would enhance security collaboration between the two countries, following talks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in Ankara.
The PKK, which has bases in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, has been waging an armed insurgency against the Turkish government since 1984.
Turkey, along with its Western allies, officially classifies the group as a terrorist organization. Turkey has maintained a military presence in the Kurdistan region of Iraq for the past 25 years as part of its efforts to combat the PKK.
