Turkish air strikes kill 26 militants in south-east Turkey and Iraq, army says

The military said in a statement on Twitter that the strikes were carried out on Sunday and Monday in Diyarbakir and Sirnak province

FILE - in this Tuesday, May 14, 2013 file photo, a group of armed Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) enter northern Iraq in the Heror area, northeast of Dahuk, 260 miles (430 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. A Kurdish rebel group says they are withdrawing from Iraq's Sinjar following threats of attack from Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, says in a statement Friday, March 23, 2018 the "Iraqi government's position and the fact that the Kurdish community had managed to organize itself" have removed security fears in the area. (AP Photo/Ceerwan Aziz, File)

A group of armed Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) enter northern Iraq in the Heror area, north-east of Dahuk, in 2013. AP

Reuters

Jun 19, 2018

Turkish air strikes killed 26 militants and destroyed their gun positions, shelters and ammunition stores in south-east Turkey and northern Iraq this week, Turkey's military said on Tuesday.

The military said in a statement on Twitter that the strikes were carried out on Sunday and Monday in Diyarbakir and Sirnak provinces and an area of northern Iraq where the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group has bases.

The Turkish military has ramped up air strikes in northern Iraq, targeting PKK bases in Qandil, close to the Iraq-Iran border, where Ankara suspects high-ranking members of the outlawed group are located.

Ankara has also recently stepped up warnings of a potential ground offensive into the Qandil region, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to "drain the terror swamp" there.

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Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that Turkish troops were advancing on Qandil with "determined steps".

Separately, a Turkish soldier was killed and two wounded on Tuesday by an improvised explosive device planted by the PKK in the south-eastern province of Siirt, the governor's office said.

In the neighbouring province of Sirnak, bordering Iraq, two Turkish soldiers were killed and three others wounded in two separate explosions, a security source said.

The PKK, which has waged an insurgency in the mainly Kurdish south-east of Turkey since 1984, is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union.