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Turkey's fighter jets kill 19 PKK militants in northern Iraq

This file picture shows a Turkish fighter jet in flight.

Turkish warplanes have killed 19 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group in a string of airstrikes against terrorist hideouts in northern Iraq.

In a brief statement released on Tuesday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry announced the news, adding that the airstrikes had been conducted on a number of localities, including the Qandil Mountains, a PKK stronghold in the Arab country.

Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq. The militants regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey, which is attached to northern Iraq.

Turkey, along with the European Union and the United States, has declared the PKK a terrorist group and banned it. The militant group has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

More than 40,000 people have been killed during the three-decade conflict between Turkey and the autonomy-seeking militant group.


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