A total of 75 Turkish soldiers and policemen were killed in an attack on the military site on the border between Turkey and Iraq, the militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said, Sputnik cited the local media as saying on Sunday.
“The PKK carried out during the last few hours several operations against the Turkish army and police positions in Chernakh area near the Iraqi border, which resulted in the killing of 75 Turkish soldiers and policemen,” a spokesman for the armed wing of the political group told Iraqi News portal on Sunday.
He added that militants seized Turkish soldiers’ weapons and ammunition in the operation that retaliated for the ”killing of a number of PKK fighters during the Turkish attacks on their positions.”
Tensions in Turkey escalated in mid-summer when the country launched a military campaign against PKK in northern Iraq, after militants claimed responsibility for the murders of several Turkish police officers they insisted were allied with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group.
The PKK, considered to be a terrorist organization by Ankara, began its separatist insurgency in 1984. The group seeks to create a Kurdish state in parts of Turkey and Iraq.