ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - One Turkish soldier and four Ankara-affiliated Kurdish village guards were killed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region’s bordering areas on Monday, according to Turkey’s defence ministry.
The ministry said in a statement on Monday that the PKK killed a soldier without mentioning where he was killed. However, state media reported that he was killed in the framework of Turkey’s Operation Claw-Thunderbolt earlier in the day. The ministry later said in a separate statement that four village guards affiliated to the interior ministry were also killed by the group in the same area.
Operation Claw-Thunderbolt along with Operation Claw-Lightning was launched against the PKK in Turkey’s bordering areas with the Kurdistan Region in April 2021.
PKK claimed responsibility for the death of the soldier and guards on Tuesday.
Turkey often targets the PKK at home and inside the Kurdistan Region, considering it a “terrorist’ organziation. The group’s stated goal is to struggle for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey.
Suleyman Soylu, Turkish interior minister, visited the family of one of the Kurdish village guards who were killed in the Monday attack.
The Turkish government has been employing village guards in Kurdish areas since the 1980s, using them in the fight against the PKK, mostly inside Turkey.
Soylu said in 2019 that they had a total of 54,007 village guards in 26 provinces.
Updated at 7:43 pm with PKK statement.
