The Iraqi army says two senior security officials have been killed in a “blatant Turkish drone strike” in the north of the country, where Ankara has been battling positions of fighters for weeks, calling it “terrorists”.
The drone hit a car belonging to Iraqi border guards in the Bradost area, north of Erbil, the army said in a statement on Tuesday. The strike caused the deaths of the two commanders of the border guard battalion and the driver of the car.
There was no direct statement by Turkey.
The deaths announced by the army mark the first time members of regular Iraqi troops have been killed since Turkey launched a border and ground operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in mid-June in the mountainous terrain of northern Iraq.
Iraq has twice called on the Turkish envoy in Baghdad to protest against Ankara’s operations on its territory.
Turkey has defended its operations in northern Iraq, noting that the central government in Baghdad has not yet done the Iraqi Kurdish regional government to remove PKK fighters who are believed to be using Iraqi territory to carry out attacks on Turkey. celebrate.
Ihsan Chalabi, the mayor of Sidakan in northern Erbil province, told AFP news agency that the drone had “targeted Iraqi border guards while in meetings with PKK fighters”.
Witnesses had earlier in the day reported clashes between PKK and Iraqi troops, and local sources told AFP the drone attack aimed at an emergency meeting to try to calm the tensions.
At least five civilians have been killed since the start of the Turkish campaign in June, according to reports.
Ankara has announced the deaths of two of its soldiers, and the PKK and its allies have reported the deaths of 10 fighters and supporters.
The PKK is considered a “terrorist” organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
At least 40,000 people have died in the decades-old conflict between the PKK and Turkey. After a peace process collapsed in 2015, ending a two-year ceasefire, the government said it would not return to talks with the PKK.
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