ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Two Iraqi border guards were killed and another one wounded on Friday in a shooting Iraq's interior ministry blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters.
“When the Iraqi border forces were carrying out their duty to secure the Iraqi-Turkish border, in the Batufa sub-district, Zakho, Dohuk Governorate, they were fired at by terrorists from the banned PKK organization,” read a statement by the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, adding the gunfire killed two border guards and wounded another.
The Iraqi interior ministry did not detail what triggered the incident.
The PKK is an armed group that has fought for increased Kurdish rights in Turkey for decades. The group, designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, uses mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region as shelter and often engages in direct armed conflict with Turkey.
The PKK has a large number of positions in the Kurdistan Region, including the Qandil headquarters. Turkey alike has military bases used to strike the group.
In a bit to establish security amid the PKK-Turkey crossfire, the Iraqi government in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has deployed federal guards along its border with Turkey.
Iraq officially in July 2024 rebranded the PKK to “Banned PKK” in all affairs of state, months after a high-level meeting between Ankara and Baghdad led the Iraqi side to criminalize the group officially.
Turkey has for years launched several rounds of an operation dubbed Claw Operation against positions of the PKK in the Kurdistan Region. The latest series of operations was launched in April 2022, dubbed Operation Claw Lock, which aims to end the group’s presence in the region.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year claimed that they were close to permanently “resolving” the PKK presence on the Turkey-Iraq border.
Civilians are frequently caught in the Turkey-PKK crossfire, bearing the brunt of the nearly four-decade-long war.
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