ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Several Turkish soldiers were killed in Duhok’s Metina area on Sunday, the Ministry Defense said on Monday, as Ankara continues military operations in the Kurdistan Region.
Three soldiers were killed in an IED explosion and two others were heavily injured in the Claw-Lighting operation, the ministry said in a statement.
Another soldier was killed and one injured when clashes erupted between Turkish forces and members of a “terrorist” organization, it said in a separate statement.
Duhok’s Metina area is the focus of Turkey’s most recent operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey has launched a series of operations against the PKK in recent years. In April, it launched Operation Claw-Thunderbolt, and Operation Claw-Lightning targets the Avashin and Basyan areas further east.
The PKK is an armed Kurdish group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization and a threat to its national security. Turkish forces regularly pursue the PKK within the Kurdistan Region’s borders.
The ministry claimed four PKK fighters were “neutralized,” a term Turkey uses to mean captured or killed.
According to figures compiled by the International Crisis Group, which tracks the PKK-Turkey conflict, in the first six months of 2021, there were 144 fatalities in the first six months of 2021. The dead are 33 Turkish soldiers, 103 PKK fighters, and eight civilians. The majority of the casualties this year have occurred in the Kurdistan Region.
A Turkish soldier was also killed in Metina on Thursday.
Many civilians have been caught in the crossfire of the Turkey-PKK conflict. A civilian was killed in Duhok on Friday and many others have been injured.
The PKK said in late July that it has carried out 398 attacks against the Turkish army since the two operations began April, and has “punished” 494 Turkish soldiers and injured 63 others. The group also acknowledged 63 deaths in its own ranks during the latest operations.
Since the decades-long conflict was reignited in 2015 following the collapse of peace efforts, at least 5,464 people have been killed, including 549 civilians.
