Report: Turkish Airstrikes in Iraq Kill 67 PKK Militants

Turkey’s state-run news agency says the military has carried out air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, killing at least 67 militants.
Report: Turkish Airstrikes in Iraq Kill 67 PKK Militants
A member of a armed group Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), a youth division of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), with his AK-47 next to pictures of the jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in a house in southeastern Turkish city of Nusaybin, Turkey, on Feb. 25, 2016. Since mid-December, the Turkish security forces placed to several predominantly Kurdish cities in Turkey under 24-hour martial law and curfew on the premise of restoring public order. Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images
The Associated Press
Updated:

ANKARA, Turkey—Turkey’s state-run news agency says the military has carried out air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, killing at least 67 militants.

Anadolu Agency, citing unnamed security sources, said Saturday that 14 F-16 and F-4 jets were involved in the March 9 strikes which allegedly destroyed ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

The agency said the offensive targeted five areas in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains on the Iraq-Iraq border where the PKK’s leadership is based.

Turkey’s jets have frequently bombed PKK sites in northern Iraq since July, when a fragile peace process between the government and rebels collapsed.

The PKK, which is fighting for autonomy for Kurds in Turkey’s southeast, is listed as a terrorist organization.

A member of the armed group Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), a youth division of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), prepare his weapons in a house in southeastern Turkish city of Nusaybin, Turkey, on March 1, 2016. (Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images)
A member of the armed group Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), a youth division of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), prepare his weapons in a house in southeastern Turkish city of Nusaybin, Turkey, on March 1, 2016. Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images