ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Clashes between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have intensified over the past two days in the northern mountains of the Kurdistan Region, with each side on Saturday claiming to have inflicted casualties on the other.
The Turkish defense ministry said its forces have “neutralized” five PKK members on Mount Metina in northern Duhok province. Ankara uses the term neutralized to denote adversaries captured, wounded, or killed. State media also reported that Turkish intelligence killed a PKK member named Ozgur Alparslan in an operation on Duhok’s Mount Gara. The report said Alparslan was a PKK leader responsible for Turkey.
On the same day, the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the military arm of the PKK, announced in a statement that they have killed 16 Turkish soldiers over the past three days in the Metina area. It also said a Sikorsky helicopter belonging to the Turkish army was damaged in clashes.
In a separate report, the Turkish defense ministry announced that a Turkish soldier was hit by a helicopter blade and killed on Friday.
Rudaw cannot independently verify these claims.
The PKK is an armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara. The Turkish state has been at war with the armed group for several decades. The conflict regularly spills over into the Kurdistan Region where the PKK has its headquarters in the Qandil Mountains. Last week Turkish strikes caused a massive fire on the slopes of Mount Metina in Duhok’s Amedi district. The flames raged for two days before they were extinguished, burning tens of acres of land between the villages in the area.
Turkish intelligence is accused of carrying out assassinations of the group’s members in the Region. Earlier this month, Turkish intelligence announced that it had carried out an operation in Sulaimani province where they killed a member of the group accused of plotting the assassination of a Turkish diplomat in 2019.
