ANKARA: A Turkish soldier was killed by Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq during a Turkish military operation that’s due to be wound down, Ankara’s defence ministry said on Wednesday.

The soldier was shot by fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been involved in an on-and-off armed insurgency against Turkiye since 1984, the ministry said.

Regarded as a terror organisation by Turkiye and most of its Western allies, including the United States and European Union, the PKK has bases in northern Iraq from where it launches attacks into Turkiye.

Claiming it needed to secure its border with its southern neighbour, Turkiye rolled out Operation Claw-Lock in April 2022. It involved Ankara attacking the Kurdish group within Iraq itself, where Turkiye also maintains several dozen military bases.

On July 13, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the operation’s imminent end, judging Kurdish forces to be “completely trapped” in both Iraq and Syria. Ankara’s incursions into Iraq have frequently strained bilateral ties with Baghdad.

Erdogan’s declaration came after Iraq’s government slammed fresh incursions by the Turkish army into Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. But there have been signs of a thaw in relations in recent months, with Erdogan in April making his first visit to Baghdad since 2011.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2024