PKK Armed Wing Attacks Turkish Soldiers on Iraqi Border

The People’s Defense Forces (HPG), an armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group outlawed in Turkey, has attacked Turkish servicemen on their country's border with Iraq, Kurdish media reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Turkish troops have sustained heavy casualties, the Firat news agency said, adding that the fighting continues.

On April 7, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Turkish forces would enter Iraq to put an end to the terror groups’ threat and will not let the PKK create its base in the Iraqi town of Sinjar. The PKK already has a base, located in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq.

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.