Turkey kills seven suspected PKK members in operation in northern Iraq

The Turkish government announced Saturday the death of seven alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in an operation by its Armed Forces in northern Iraq.

This has been confirmed by the Turkish Ministry of Defense through its profile on the social network Twitter, where it has asserted that Ankara would have acted in response to the death of a member of the Army.

Later, the Turkish news agency Anatolia detailed that the infantry lieutenant Serkan Erkus died on Friday as a result of clashes between the Armed Forces and the PKK.

“We won’t leave our martyr’s blood on the ground, we won’t do it! Seven PKK terrorists detected in northern Iraq have been neutralized by our Turkish Armed Forces,” the Defense Ministry said.

The Turkish Army has intensified its operations against the PKK — which it considers a terrorist group — in both southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, both of which are Kurdish-majority, since the ceasefire between the government and the armed group was broken in July 2015.