Turkey says six soldiers killed in PKK strike in Iraq

Six Turkish soldiers were killed and one wounded when their base in northern Iraq was attacked by members of a Kurdish party outlawed by Ankara, the defense ministry said Saturday.

Turkey has operated several dozen military posts in northern Iraq for the past 25 years in its decades-old war against the PKK, a group blacklisted by Turkey and many of its Western allies as a terrorist organization.

Friday’s attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party occurred near Hakurk, the ministry said, adding that Turkish troops were carrying out a military operation in the area.

In October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to continue stepping up its strikes on “terrorist” targets in Iraq and Syria.

The PKK claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on October 1 that injured two police officers in Ankara.