PKK KILLS 3 TURKISH SOLDIERS NEAR IRAQI BORDER

On June 3, three soldiers were killed an attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Turkish province of Hakkari near the border with Iraq, according to the Turkish military.

The killed soldiers were protecting a road building team in the Daglica district of the province.

According to media reports, one soldier was also wounded in same province when the PKK launched a rocket from a mountainous area on the Iraqi side of the border.

On June 4, the Turkish Interior Ministry said that a total of 30 PKK members, including three leaders, were “neutralized” in security operations across Turkey during the past week.

The ministry added that Turkish forces had carried out 1,419 counter-terrorism operations in the period between May 28 and June 4.

The PKK is a Kurdish separatist organization, which de-facto seeks to establish an independent Kurdish state in southern Turkey and, if it’s possible, northern parts of Iraq and Syria. It wages a long time insurgency against the Turkish government. Ankara describes the PKK and other Kurdish militias linked to it, like Syrian YPG/YPJ, as terrorist groups.

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