Kurdistan Workers’ Party Claims Responsibility for Two Attacks on Turkish Troops

Units of the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkey, namely, the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), claimed responsibility for attacks on the positions of Turkish servicemen, the HPG said in a statement Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – According to the statement, on Thursday, HPG militants opened fire on Turkish soldiers near a village located in the province of Hakkari. No information on the exact number of casualties has been provided to date.

Also on Thursday, female fighters from the HPG’s units attacked Turkish army’s checkpoint in the same province which provoked the servicemen to open mortar shelling in response.

Turkish aviation attacked HPG bases, located in northern Iraq’s Qandil mountains, as a retaliatory measure. Two Kurdish militants reportedly went missing as result of the attack.

Tensions between Ankara and the Kurdish pro-independence PKK escalated in 2015, after a three-year ceasefire between the two sides collapsed over a series of terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK members, prompting Ankara to launch a military operation in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern regions.