ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Five fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in an air strike near the Iranian border late Tuesday night, a local Kurdish official told Rudaw.
"A car carrying five PKK guerillas passing through the village of Sefre was struck by a missile around midnight," Mawat Governor Kamuran Hasan told Rudaw.
A second missile also hit the village hospital in Mawat district in the north of Sulaimani province, causing material damage but no casualties, according to the official.
A statement from Turkey's Defense Ministry published on Twitter claimed responsibility for the strike, part of reconnaissance and surveillance operations that "continue resolutely" over northern Iraq.
Turkish Armed Forces have been active in the Qandil Mountain range which borders between Turkey, Iraq and Iran, since 2017. The mountainous terrain is used by guerrillas as a base to hide out from forces they are at war with, as well as to launch attacks.
Founded in 1978, the PKK has been engaged in a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state for increased rights for the Kurdish minority. The conflict has claimed thousands of lives.
Villages in Duhok province have been caught up in the conflict, vulnerable to attacks from both Turkey and the PKK.
Iran has also targeted groups in the Kurdistan Region, and launched a ballistic missile targeting the headquarters of Kurdish insurgents in the town of Koya in 2018.
The outskirts of Mount Asos in eastern Sulaimani have seen similar strikes in the past, but Kamuran said this was the first time in his memory that an attack hit the center of a village
The PKK has not issued a statement regarding the attack.
.png&w=3840&q=75)
