Seven or more members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed on Thursday as the Turkish Armed Forces launched two drone strikes in northern Iraq.
According to Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet, the Kurdistan Regional Government said one strike hit a vehicle in Erbil province, resulting in the deaths of an official and two fighters. In a separate raid, a drone attack targeted a house in southern Iraqi Kurdistan, killing four PKK members—two men and two women. Witnesses cited by Rudaw reported drones still operating near the border at the time of reporting.
Turkey had announced the start of a campaign in mid-April 2022 and conducted ongoing operations against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan, which Baghdad described as a threat to national security because there had been little coordination of activities. The Turkish Army has also carried out frequent incursions against the PKK and its allies in northern Syria, notably the Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG), since the breakdown of a ceasefire with the group in July 2015.