ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least seven suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters were killed in Erbil province on Thursday by suspected Turkish drones, Erbil-based Kurdish counterterrorism forces said, amid a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
“A Turkish drone targeted a vehicle of the PKK on the Snine road in Sidakan district of Erbil province, killing a senior official and two PKK fighters,” Kurdistan CT said.
Four other alleged PKK members were also killed in a second drone strike in the same area later in the day, the CT reported.
The drone strikes comes as Fidan makes his first visit as foreign minister to Erbil to discuss several issues including the presence of PKK fighters in the Kurdistan Region’s bordering areas with Turkey.
Alongside Fidan, Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar is also in Erbil and will join Fidan’s meeting with Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.
On Thursday, a Turkish soldier died of his injuries after being attacked by the PKK in northern Duhok province, the Turkish defense ministry said.
The PKK has not commented on Thursday’s reports.
The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against Turkey for decades and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, which has launched numerous operations against the group and its alleged offshoots in the Kurdistan Region and Syria.
Kurdistan CT is unofficially linked to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) - which has had rocky relations with the PKK for decades. There have been clashes between KDP-affiliated Peshmerga forces and PKK fighters in bordering areas in recent years over land control.
Iraqi officials have repeatedly accused Ankara of violating Iraqi sovereignty by maintaining an “illegal” presence in the Kurdistan Region on the grounds of fighting the PKK, while also accusing the Kurdish group of using its territory to launch cross-border attacks against Turkey.
In a press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein on Tuesday, Fidan called on Baghdad to recognize the PKK as a terrorist organization, saying the group has infiltrated Iraqi cities and poses a threat to its security and stability.
He called the PKK a “common enemy,” saying that Baghdad and Ankara must not allow the group “to poison our bilateral relations.”
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